Sara Borjas – White Birches

Sara Borjas

White Birches
              Monson, Maine

These must be 
what the old white 
poets were 
raving about
—how they 
make so 
much room 
for themselves. 
If you can’t 
tell if I am 
angry, exactly, 
I am. 
I can 
and cannot 
write about 
trees right now. 
I can 
and cannot 
write about 
white terror, 
or make a choice. 
That’s what 
you all do 
not understand. 
These white 
birches 
have some 
audacity, existing. 
If I just 
stood there, 
accepting, 
I could be 
like them. 
But I could 
never again 
call myself 
human.