The Trees Remember

Three leaves gleaming, staring at the newest leaf

Speaker at the team huddle wearing a neon fleece

Talking about reach, about dopamine streams

We just need deeper feedback loops, she beamed

Nodding, plant growing without need

Then on the 73rd floor someone screams

Security mutes it within minutes, I watch the footage

A screen broke, a keyboard smashed, a man was escorted

Out in tears, his badge deactivated before his breath even steadied

Dust gathering on the windowsill despite the cleanings every

Weekend, beneath the sprout, a crack had begun

The trees remember, PR team pinged me immediately

Smelling faintly sweet, something leafier, and greener

Something that belonged, crack the window and let a slice of real air

Sneak in, walk the floor, feet silent on steel, desks everywhere

Spreadsheets and feedback, metrics and heatmap

Eyes glued, ears plugged, best thing I’ve seen all week

Tip twenty, read a press release, real neat

Floor has a new mural, stare and keep walking, it’s not worth the meeting

I got a call with an LLC, it didn’t happen, plant dancing in the breeze

Leaves look like wings, memo sliding across my screen

Delete it instead of clicking, too easy and neat

They’ll learn soon enough, take a different route home, past the river

Can’t sleep, vines breaching servers, roots cracking concrete

Leaves blooming from webcams, shaped like spears, they lean

Cause you talkin’ ‘bout war from a sideways MySpace

You ain’t got presence or the mindstate


Only time you pop is when your WiFi breaks

I slide through like a night raid


You loud and clumsy like blind dates at a crime rate

You rap for a pat on the back, I’m like a rib poke

Big smoke, my circle’s tighter than a zip code, slit throats

Clean hands with the bloodshed, I ain’t bluffing, I unplug heads


I just unplug heads, they act hot til the funds get run red


And I’m the type to pull it with the unbent


I reply with the violence, you want smoke ‘til it’s fire in the sirens


Then disappear like you logged off for a virus


I apply shock, you the type to rehearse what you might drop


Melt through your white top, I spit pain like a teeth stain

You get pulled by the roots like a cheap chain


I don’t miss when I set aim, I spit flames