THE SHINE JOURNAL

Flash Literature, Poetry, Art and Photography!

 The Big Leafless Tree

  by

  Jody Boss



  Dazing glumly at the big leafless tree,
  It looks like me, dead but still lingering.
  We sat down next to the big leafless tree,
  The next day a single young leaf bloomed.
  It grew green and strong,
  Soaked up the sun and blew in the breeze.
  Then one day a young spirited couple walked to the tree,
  They carved their initials for life in the tree.
  And the leaf fell,
  Swaying away in seesaw swirls.
  The grandfathered rustic tree now ready to rot away,
  Felt a sudden hard tugging on his strongest arm.
  He looked down to see a father and two children,
  They were wrapping strong rope around him,
  Carefree, building a tire swing.
  Then a mama canary came along and built a snug nest,
  In the big leafless trees most comfortable arm.
  Soon the children played with the big leafless tree everyday,
  And the canary nursed four baby birds with the tree.
  With all this new love the big leafless tree now felt,
  He instinctively grew bright, dazzling new leaves,
  And flaunted his beauty for all the world to see.
  Happy again, the now plentiful tree realized all of those years that
  passed by with no love,
  “I wasn’t really leafless,” he said “I was lifeless.”




JODY BOSS shares...

 

JODY BOSS was born in West Palm Beach, Florida. Her mother, a single-parent, moved Jody and her sister north, where she grew up moving frequently—from one area of Western Massachusetts to another. Most of Jody’s teenage years were spent in and out of juvenile group homes, detention centers and foster homes, but despite that, in 1995 she graduated from Easthampton High School.

 

At age eighteen, no longer custody of the state and with no stable or reliable role models in her life, Jody quickly spiraled down into the world of drugs and alcohol which left her homeless and hollow Two months after her nineteenth birthday, she was incarcerated at Hampden County House of Corrections, where she remained for eighteen months.

 

Through a series of what she calls divine interventions, Jody began her journey of recovery, and it’s a road she has remained on with very few setbacks since 1998. With a scholarship from Voices from Inside, she took the AWA training and in 2002 became a VFI writing facilitator. In 2004 she earned her BS in Social Thought/Political Economy from University of Massachusetts.

 

Today Jody is a full-time working mother of a beautiful three-year old boy, a writer, and a VFI workshop facilitator at the Western Massachusetts Alcohol Correctional Center.  Of her journey she says, “It has taken me to a place where I strive daily to be a positive force on our planet."

 

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