Poisonous Sap From The Cotton Tree

It's the situations you choose that can define

It's the situations you see that teach

It's the situations you experience that mold

It's the situations you walk into that tell

It's the situations you leave that speak

The movement spells

The answer

The turning point stamps

The period

The four-lane highways contour

The question mark

The blurry landscape at 60 miles per hour

Adds length to the question mark

A trip from the gas attendant around 11 p.m.

Strikes down to it

An exclamation point

A new act on Earth's theatre stage with a new title on the marquee

Missing a comma

Without a semicolon

It is the time expanded

It is the life gained but lost

It is the family tree clarified

A thin, dead branch pruned before Thanksgiving

It's presence was unknown

Until noted

Once studied, its malnutrition seeped out the bark

Its sap poisoned fingertips in contact

A good soap with a good scrub helps

It is the family tree clarified

It was unknown

It is now written