If I were half as free as youI wouldn’t droop,make faces of parchment,shed branches like phantoms,wouldn’t hidea heart of soft scarlet. If you were half as free as meyou wouldn’t go—you who leave not once, like guests,but over and over, like friends.

Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/03/09/what-the-cedar-may-have-said-jesse-nathan/