(or, as I've come to know him, the Fuck You Tree)

I left the house today,
Early afternoon,
For a walk to the store.

The sky was blue,
The air was spring-rain crisp,
And the sun was proud.

I turned right
On the first block,
Like I always do.

It’s the block with
The sidewalk
That’s all jacked up
By the hundred-year-old tree
Whose roots had
Forced their way
Through the concrete,
Making the walkway
A mini-climb,

A “fuck you” to progress
That only a tree that age
Could, so very clearly, say.

I swear I’d heard that grandfather
Chuckle a time or two
Given the right wind,
Or a burdened pedestrian
Making his way up and over
Those massive roots.

I had heard the sounds of
Yard work and home improvement
All morning long.
And I hadn’t given it much thought.

Which made the shock of
What I saw next
Extra sharp and still.

There was a truck,
Four, maybe five workmen,
One of them
Running a chain saw.
More than half of my friend
Had already been dismembered.
Only two of his tallest branches remained,
Green and swaying to the end
Of his last majestic day alive
On Planet Earth.

I couldn’t stop
From choking back a sob,
Covering my mouth
To keep from screaming.

I noticed, for the first time,
The absence of the birds’ chorus,
And when I stood still
I realized I was not the only creature
Lamenting, raging against
The brutality of men,
Those who possessed the arrogance
To imagine that wherever concrete reigned,
So did permission to remove
Any perceived impediments.

As I felt the Fuck You Tree’s energy
Slipping away into the ethers,
I felt the sorrow of his community,
Our cozy little neighborhood
Shaded by the leaves of
Fellow barked-kin.

The shrubs mourned,
And even the weeds
Stopped their constant applause
To mark the passing
Of their Longstood Elder.

They hauled him off
In bundles of logs,
And bits of bark dust,
As if recycling his remains
Might make us less guilty
Of our signature audacities.

05/17/2012

Author's Note: I really did cry. That tree was majestic, raised the sidewalk there by a good two feet or so that you literally had to climb over if you wanted to walk on that side of the street. F'n humans anyway...

Posted on 05/18/2012
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