Forever pine

by Lara Nelson Frank - Not entered

When I was young
I lived in the suburbs and 
I never saw a tree except
those
neat, tidy, trimmed,
pruned, bland, boring,
characterless
trees
in other people's front yards.
When I was thirteen
we moved,
moved to a tiny house,
tiny for five people,
in a tiny,
tiny village,
in the Carolinas
and I saw oaks,
magnificent, sprawling,
overhanging, 
southern, fairytale
oaks,
untrimmed, thick-trunked,
a shadow in the sunshine, past in the present
adorned in spanish moss,
gray and graceful.
When I was twenty
and in college,
and taking my degree,
all the trees I saw were those
on campus, just
like the trees in the suburbs that
were all I ever saw when I was young.
A summer holiday, I lived in a cabin
by a lake
and there were the willows,
cascading, green, shadowy, dreamy
and when I got married
we lived in an apartment
in Canada in Toronto, a city
and there were no
trees except dusty,
tired, withered, pitiful
saplings
and when we had a raise
we moved north, to a town
where the pine trees were,
tall, regal, needles scented
and sticky, forever green,
and this is where we stayed
where the pines were 
forever.

Reason for writing:

    the poem is true.  i adore pine trees.    

Birth sign: Not entered
Date created: 1998-06-22 12:20:03
Last updated: 2021-03-03 14:40:21
Poem ID: 49981

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