quincunx

quincunx \KWING-kuhngks, KWIN-\, noun: 
1. an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
2. Botany. an overlapping arrangement of five petals or leaves, in which two are interior, two are exterior, and one is partly interior and partly exterior.


If I am partly interior and partly
exterior, what does that mean for the trees?
Sure, they live longer; their skin 
needs to be that tough. They know it isn't 
safe to reveal their beating hearts though 
they are pumping more blood
than you or I. And each leaf
that falls from their branches is more
than a loss. They cannot even stoop
to pick them up again. These parts
lay on the ground and disintegrate
and they cannot even watch. And then, 
from within them, they must feel
new ones sprout, push themselves out,
glittering and soft. None the same and yet
all of them known. And the green
would make the tree weep, if it only could.