I

walking on the slush-covered sidewalk
i look up
to see the neon X glowing
in the afternoon sun
it pains me to live in a city
where absence of leaves, crumbling branches &
bark falling away from trunk
means death
means human hazard.
when the snow leaves
she will be leaving too.

II

Manitoba maples are weak-limbed trees
always dropping branches
threatening to crush the roof
again.
my neighbour - he calls them weeds - cut his down
pulled the seedlings from the soil
and each spring new shoots
poke up from the roots
each fragment left the previous year
a new sapling
rising up
defiant.

III

as a child i sat mesmerised
tiny holes dripping with amber
beads of sap that weren't actually moist
the finest powder of sawdust carpeting
moss and lichen below
ants busily marching up and down pine bark
busy busy busy
i picked off a loose sheet
to expose maggots, beetles, centipedes
earwigs, more ants
all terrified and furious
at my imposition

IV

there was a single poplar
in the near end
of my parents' vegetable garden
it shaded that end of the garden
so my mother cut it down.
and everywhere the poplar had roots
it sent up trees
tiny poplars were mowed in the lawn
as they shot up between blades of grass
a poplar is a hydra
each time you cut its crown it grows two more.

my aunt, a landscape architect explained,
there are only two ways for a poplar to die:
if it's struck by lightning
the force of the electricity
causes the poplar to explode
from the inside out.
the other way for a poplar to die
is when it's good and ready to.

V

People go to see Avatar
and come home saying things like,
"Wouldn't it be cool if we really could
talk to a tree?"
i wonder:
how many of them have actually tried
very few tree-huggers
it seems
have actually embraced a tree
i think we've forgotten our roots.

VI

There's a place in Exibition Park
where three spruce trees grow
in a triangle.
overwhelmed i stepped between them,
leaned back against one trunk
reached out with my left leg
with my right
body suspended nearly three feet
off the ground
my being held easily
by the massive trunks
i closed my eyes
barking dogs & passing cars fading
into the distance
i listened.

03/29/2010

Posted on 03/29/2010
Copyright © 2025 Sarah George