Taking Down the Tree

13They’re taking down the tree today,
one that leaned, year after year,
a little closer, a little farther
over the neighbors’ yard.
Workmen in bright orange
vests work fast with unyielding
faces, all business. From youthful
tips to sagest bottom, bare November
limbs are sawed and lowered down
by ropes. Disrobed now, a naked trunk.
I hadn’t known April would be its last
foliage, last dressing into supple green
gloves, last ring of years circling
in the stump, now embracer to previous.
Last, the machine takes it all in, spits,
grinding it to mulch.

1 thought on “Taking Down the Tree

  1. Thank you Amy! I just watched this happen this morning—a tree across the street that I had planned to make a painting of. Though it hurt to watch—it needed to be taken—it was clearly dying and shedding branches into the road—still I had to watch though I cried.

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