Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Upon Witnessing A Great Old Tree

It is sad to see this great Old Tree
So tangled and overgrown,
And to wonder if it will survive
A stern pruning, or worse, wildfire!
What a strangled mess - with crossing limbs
And sucker-shoots, and leaves
Starved for oxygen, failing to floresce,
Without seed or stone or fruit ...
If fortune favors, no fungus rots the heartwood,
Nor virus plague the branch ...
But where to cut? And, too, how deeply?
Do I wait another season? Another year?
     Another day?