Plant the weeping cherry
where you cut the maple down
just two years ago –
slice the sod with a spade,
excavate the loam and clay,
until you strike a solid shape, a root,
decayed, white with rot,
ghost of the ground,
remainder of the old,
that splinters with the force
of the shovel’s blade.

And again, another root,
this one harder, more intact,
that will not give without the
proper tool – an axe,
a keyhole saw.

Finally, form the rounded pit
a berm of dirt beside it,
laced with shredded, excised roots –
unwrap the burlap from the
sapling’s ball – settle it into
the earth, mix dirt and humus,
fill in around the new clump of roots,
so they may insinuate themselves
past the bones of memory.

05/22/2002

Posted on 05/22/2002
Copyright © 2026 Bruce W Niedt