Requiem

The tall white pine that grew for years
By this piedmont lake was cut today.
Its hundred-foot length came slamming down
A rain of sawdust, splintered branches,
Dust, and a piercing cry of air
   --- now broken corpse; bucked, sawed.

Neither old nor sick her father cut
It down because it blocked his view
Of nature.  And I am swept by fear
Of how this says there is no hope
For us that we could do such a thing
   --- to such a one as that.

She is beside herself with grief,
Enraged with tears that her father would
Take a life that caused no harm,
That she loved so well.  She gathers up
A handful of its shredded heart
   --- to honor and remember.

And in her love for this fallen tree
With roots that held her close to ground,
Shared spirit on this sacred Earth,
Paired breath, she sees her closer kin.
I come again to see a light
   --- of hope for us after all.

____________________________

Steve Trombulak is a pagaian who works to heal the connections between community and the more-than-just-human world. His poetry draws from his almost 40 years as an academic biologist specializing in conservation biology and natural history. His most recent work is The Way of Gaia, with Martin Bridge, a visual and textual exploration of the past, present, and future of the Tree of Life.