The Nursery

They lured me in with honeyed words and promises. Come in and flourish! They said. We will feed and water you and watch you bloom. We’ve been looking for a willow. They put me in a pot of rich dirt and patted me in. They poured bottled water over me and cooed. When I started sprouting, they praised my progress and gave me a little more light.

Then they put on gloves and started plucking out my limbs. I cried and they said, No no no, these are weeds, they are not a part of you. But it hurts, I said, and they said, No it doesn’t, it’s good for you. Here is some more fertilizer. But I’m already full and I just need a bigger pot, I said. No you don’t, they told me, you need to sit in that pot and take more vitamins until we say you’re ready. They had taken my limbs so I sat in my pot and tried to swallow my medicine.

I grew bigger, without some of my limbs, and I almost forgot they’d ever been there. They came back and told me I was coming along nicely, but my form was off. They brought over rusty sheers and started pruning what was unseemly. I cried. No, I need those parts, they are me, I said. No you don’t, they told me, these ends are unnecessary and detract from your beauty. They run on too long and touch the floor. We know what is beautiful, and these shaggy ends are not contributing. They had taken my limbs so I sat in my pot and tried not to feel cold where my ends were trimmed.

After three years I had become everything they had promised. They pulled me from my incubator and put me in line with all the other trees. We were all quite beautiful and trim. But my friend was missing. What happened to my friend Mimosa who came in with me? I asked. Mimosa? They said, like they couldn’t hear. Mimosa, I said, my friend who came with me. Mimosa was too difficult, the one who had pruned me snarled, she fought me when I pruned her and eventually she left. She is nothing now, a mess, she’ll never be a true beauty like the rest of you.

I looked around again at my contemporaries, and noticed a few withering leaves and slightly bent trunks, seeping gnarls where limbs had been removed, small details unnoticeable at first glance. I looked down to see my own leaves falling to fertilize my pot.