They were soldiers

or boys, if you prefer

carrying guns like men because that’s what grown ups do, right

and they said goodbye to mom and dad and 

they set off. And

they sailed into an alien solar system with bullets in their guns and steel in their eyes

and they set down in their metal birds and they weren’t used to all the green there

so much green on

this alien planet

so it, the jungle I mean, swallowed them up because they were soft and unknowing  

and it hungered for muted colors

like gray

and then the jungle was calm and soft and dull

and empty for a long time.

 

 

But

soldiers quickly

turn

from gray to green, you know

and they grew branches instead of arms and legs

and their soft brown hair spiraled into floppy green leaves

and their soft pink skin grew hard and brown

and their roots dug into the ground and held firm and powerful

and there they stood

desperate 

and angry

for many, many

years

And that was their skin.

And they waited. 

 

 

And a long time after they dug their roots in, after they sprouted leaves and branches, when they were all asleep

a jet sailed through the air like a crow

or a hawk or

maybe a raven even

and the horizon flooded tangerine

tangerine clouds.

And the sleeping trees opened their eyes

which were really just knots in their bark and they said

what is that?

and the ugly orange cloud seeped toward them and they tried to run but
but

their roots were dug too deep in the alien planet, too deep in the

filthy,

barren dirt

and they stood there stuck in the ground

thrashing and

waiting

helpless

for the cloud

in the distance

creeping

creeping

closer.

and one tree, smaller than the rest

he imagined that if he could still smell, he would taste oranges in the air

and he closed his eyes and he imagined his home.

and then, then he could smell but

all his nose filled with was gas and

his branches turned back into limbs but

they were too weak to hold him

and 

he fell and

his sockets, they came back but his eyes were just scorched ash

and

he screamed through his dead mouth

and

the trees, they watched through their ashy sockets as they grew soft and pink and just boys again

they watched as their hard brown skin peeled off and left them raw

they watched as their bodies burned

and they were left ravaged 

and stolen

and dead inside

in the alien jungle.

 

 

And many years later

Some of them were

back home but

changed

and some of them were

scrawled on a tall V planted in

the ground

and some of them were forgotten and

left broken in the alien jungle that they were left to call home

and some were just fine.

but in the end

After trees and

jungles and

gas and

scars

and guns

all were men

if you know what I mean.