​The Oak by Edvard Munch, by Ellen Aronofsky Cole

The Oak, by Edvard Munch (Norway) 1906

​The Oak by Edvard Munch 
 
The oak twists   trembles 
like a woman trying to shake  
 
lightening out of her hair 
Blue air yanks off her twigs 
 
blows them away 
Fire burns on her shoulder 
 
a ball of white flame 
cannons out of the sky 
 
She will tear herself apart 
trying to flee 
 
Something hovers behind the mass  
of limbs    Something that holds 
 
the eye of fire between its knees  
Something with a mouth 
 
Something with teeth 
Something that hungers for tree

Ellen Aronofsky Cole

Ellen Aronofsky Cole is an actor, puppeteer, teaching artist, and poet. Her books include her full-length collection, Notes from the Dry Country, (Mayapple Press, 2019) and Prognosis, (Finishing Line Press, 2011.) Her poems have appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, Gargoyle, Little Patuxent Review, Potomac Review, Innisfree Poetry Journal, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Fledgling Rag, The Washington Post, New Verse News, and elsewhere. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband Brian, and a small, feisty parrot named Haiku.