— the trees carry your face — tonight, the trees wear your face— bark turned bone, leaves turned whispers, a thousand unmarked tongues singing what the earth refused to forget. who taught the ground to hold its breath? who taught history to bite its own tongue? you, who danced your last steps in chains, who poured yourself into unmarked graves, you, stolen, erased, but never undone. tonight, the light knows your name. it climbs the branches, carves you whole, etches your sorrow into the air, makes the world remember what it chose to ignore. even in death, they tried to bury your voice— but the roots rose up, but the wind hummed back, but the trees opened their arms & said: here you are. you are not forgotten. your name sways in the branches. your soul dances in shadows of leaves. you rise, illuminated. you rise, unstoppable. ©️MustafaSantiagoAli #Poetry #Art Photo Credit: CraigMarsh