I conjugate verbs:

           hablo…hablas…habla…

but the Word stays the same

I conjugate verbs:

          hablamos…hablais…hablan

but the root remains

untouched, hardly touching.

O, Stump of Jesse-tree

a dog came barking up you

but got no reply

so turned a bad-mouth beaver

and loudly applied

well-oiled teeth

to take you down.

What shoot from you will speak

in the silence screaming

machinery leaves behind?

O, Stump of Jesse-tree

what answer–clear, cut, dried–

can you give to our request

for hardwood floors

and full-page ads

and coffee cups that act

like lovely autumn leaves

littering the withdrawn earth?

O, Stump of Jesse-tree

accept my cheek laid 

upon your amputated plain;

receive my speechless tears

like salty rain

still unlearned in prayer

and horticulture.

Turn them all the other way

to vertical account;

send high your shoot

above every bloody mount.