Tag Archives: poem about a tree

“Tree-hugger” for dVerse Poets, Nov 13, 2024

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            Tree-hugger.                 
Today my eyes teared over
as they bulldozed the tree
in the undeveloped lot next door.
It had to be cut. 
A house was being built there and
aside from the trash it dropped,
it blocked the view.
“I’ll tell you what,” Kazem had said,
“I’ll dig it up and plant it in your yard.”
But I didn’t want the mess of it, either.
I wanted the tree next door
where I could see it 
without  dealing 
with the fluff in my pool,
the pods falling off.
That tree was a resting place for  birds,
which I said goodbye to
along with the tree.
Then, while I was at it,
I said goodbye to my cat
who had drowned in the pool
a week before.
Goodbye to my husband
who had hoped to see that tree
and the view around it
every day of the rest of his life.
Goodbye to my mother,
who passed onto me
her love of trees.
Goodbye
to all loved creatures 
recently gone.
The tree was gone in a minute,
along with dry bushes, weeds.
The backhoe scraped the soil over
Coke cans, agua bottles,
plastic flowerpots and chips wrappers–
the detritus from houses on each side,
as well as evidence of years of workers
who sat in the shade of the lot for lunch.
For a year or two
of privacy lost, calm shattered,
peace surrendered,
I’d get new neighbors,   
perhaps a friend.
Clouds of dust billowed
over my newly painted wall.
They’d plant new trees, 
the builder promised,
as he bulldozed all.

–Judy D-B

For dVerse Poets Pub, photo by Aaron Burden
To see the prompt, go HERE. The prompt quote was:
—whose hearts are mountains, roots are trees,
it’s they shall cry hello to the spring.
–e.e. cummings

Uprooted

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Uprooted

“Can you get even closer to the tree?” he said—so I went inches from the trunk of the tallest of the trees, crowding the fern that reached tentative tentacles from the tree’s shade into a ray of sun that escaped the fast-collecting clouds. “I’ll protect you,” he had said years ago, when we declared our union. But now, in this time of the approaching storm, I wondered about both tree and one who over the years had been in turn protector and threat. In times of gentle rain, a shield. In times more volatile, that sudden bolt that left bruised places easily hidden. I saw the tree’s scar, devoid of bark, burned at the edges––that place now easily overlooked in the shadows. And I moved away from the tree, walking with new confidence to the car. Uprooted, finally, after so many years.

 

Italicized line is from Sharon Olds’ poem, “Pine Tree Ode.” For the dVerse Poets Pub prompt–to develop a prose piece of 144 words making use of a line from another poet’s poem about a tree. Go HERE to read what other writers did with this prompt or to participate yourself.