Fissured Tongue Series

More Could Fall On Us
for Thuja plicata, western red cedar,
          called “the tree of life” by the Kakawaka’wakw
by Laura Gamache
​Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025​

"Life of B Bishop Interview" by Robb Kunz. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 inches, 2025

More Could Fall On Us
for Thuja plicata, western red cedar,
          called “the tree of life” by the Kakawaka’wakw

Swelling rumble then crash shakes the atrium
lattice that connects to the Visitors Center
as I walk through the Arboretum –
unsettles me, only steps away.

A venerable western red cedar has collapsed
across the road, newly wrenched from earth,
monster fist of roots shedding soil. A man
materializes, ties yellow tape to cones,

separates us from this fallen giant. He
urges care: another ancient might plummet
from the grove’s shaken overstory.
Witch hazel fingers beckon, yellow ones’

spikey sweet scent permeating the path
dozens of yards before it winds
under wide-reaching branches wearing
spidery blossoms and marcescent leaves

crumpled to brown wads. Jasmine bushes
teem with tiny luscious scented white bells.
Daphne is not heady with aroma, didn’t survive
this winter’s weeks below freezing. Further

sign is propped against an old Doug fir
beneath whose canopy I stand: “Caution,
broken limbs above.” More could fall on us.

***

About the Author 
Seattle poet and teaching artist Laura Gamache has published in journals and anthologies, including Nixes Mate, Passager Journal 2022, Rattle, Altered Syntax Postcard Project, So, Dear Writer, and WA129, and in her chapbooks, Never Enough and Nothing to Hold Onto. She has worked in classrooms, from the Puget Sound area to southeastern Oregon since 1993. She received her MFA from the University of Washington in 1993. 

*

About the Work
This poem began during a month-long daily poem draft production project. While walking in the Washington Park Arboretum, a cedar tree really did fall. Since Western red cedars are vital and venerated by the Coast Salish people who have lived here for thousands of years (canoes, rain repelling hats, long houses, the shelter of Mother Cedar), this crash felt important, maybe like a portent, to me. 

*

About the Author’s Process
I try to write a poem draft daily, though I may never go back to it. This poem I did go back to, over months, since I felt it pointed to important realities. It is a poem of witness.

About the Artist
Robb Kunz hails from Teton Valley, Idaho. He received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Idaho. He currently teaches writing at Utah State University and is the Art and Design Faculty Advisor of Sink Hollow: An Undergraduate Literary Journal. His art has been published in Peatsmoke Journal, Red Ogre Review, Fatal Flaw Literary Magazine, and New Delta Review. His art is upcoming in Ponder Review, Glassworks Magazine, and Anodyne Magazine.

"My paintings explore the abstract simplicity of ordinary life and the deductive impulse to see ourselves reflected back in art. My medium of choice is oil and pencil. Using embroidery and fabric manipulation is a recent expansion of my artistic expression. Combining differing elements creates a dissonance that inspires and propels me forward in my work."

*