Write a poem from the point of view of one person/animal/thing from Hieronymous Bosch’s famous triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights.
I am older than your favorite book
standing firmly on the ground
I am thick and gnarled
like an old man’s knuckles
polishing shoes
I am bare and pudgy
like spread legs
sprawling toward the sky
an inside-out umbrella
long, stiff leaves
like an 80-year-old spine
feasting on condensation
from the mist rolling
along clifftops
and high plateaus
I once fought
an elephant
and lost
red bleeds from
my snarled skin
as knives peel
back layers
revealing crimson guts
harvest me
for your medicines
and witchcraft
but let me live
another 1,000 years more.
