Willow And Ginkgo by Eve Merriam

The Willow is like an etching,
Fine-lined against the sky.
The ginkgo is like a crude sketch,
Hardly worthy to be signed.
The willow's music is like a soprano,
Delicate and thin.
The ginkgo's tune is like a chorus,
With everyone joining in.

The willow is sleek as a velvet-nosed calf;
The ginkgo is leathery as an old bull.
The willow's branches are like silken thread;
The ginkgo's like stubby rough wool.

The willow is like a nymph with streaming hair;
Wherever it grows, there is green and gold and fair.
The willow dips to the water,
Protected and precious, like the king's favourite daughter.

The gingko forces its way through grey concrete;
Like a city child, it grows up in the street.
Thrust against the metal sky,
Somehow it survives and even thrives.
My eyes feast upon the willow,
But my heart goes to the gingko.

-By Eve Merriam

To My sister-born on 17/04/2012

When you went out of the delivery suite,
Those glaring eyes I never seen,
I couldn't believe what my eyes saw,
All this time where have you been?

I thought and thought what a miracle it was,
It's like going out safe of a deadly moss,
I began crying as at you I stared,