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Click hereFor months there was shade
then lightning struck the pine
outside our bedroom window.
Since the storm
it has existed, exposing
scars branded onto its body.
Yesterday the tree was felled
by men with chainsaws and heavy boots.
The sparkleberry also fell; victim
to logistics in the felling of the pine
and the shade was sucked screaming
into the steamy ground.
For me it all hinges on the last two lines, and what powerful image you conjure there. A shade sucked screaming? It's the last thing to go, long after the pieces of plant-body are taken away: the memory of a shade on your window. Screaming, because it's missed. It's the specter of a tree, of something that was once there.
"Sucked" into steamy ground, the ground now heats. The shadow dissolving into it, remaining a moment longer than the tree. Makes me think of an horror movie. Not sure why.
But I can’t help myself.
At the risk of being tarred and feathered and rode out of town… I couldn’t keep this poem from reminding me of ‘killing two birds with one stone’… or of ‘’lightning striking twice’ (directly, then indirectly).
And then the loss of both trees must certainly be enough to cause one to ‘Pine’ for both of them.
Sorry, too many metaphors in my coffee this morning, I suppose…
But, one heck of a poem. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jes_da_man
I hate nature's destruction of nature--and man's ruddy interference. Okay, but the poem--just the right amount of words to convey meaning. Reads great to my espie ears.
Wow. I would not change a thing! I wrote a poem with a similar theme a while back called Requiem for the Green (before I was a better poet). This got me in the guts. Getting a recommend. Wish I could give it six!
I enjoy all things nature though I have a special kinship with trees. The fall of the tree and the good shade it provided is really a loss. Que sera, sera even with the Mother. Well done.