Goodbye Leaning Firetree, Goodbye

Dr Abe V Rotor
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[Living with Nature]
[naturalism - the eighth sense] 

Firetree (Delonix regia) in bloom leaning precariously
45 degrees towards Regalado Ave., Fairview, QC 2010

An arch and a crown you make
for all passersby
to greet and honor them;


your trunk and limbs reach out
in friendly handshake 
and embrace;

you send confetti year round,
green in monsoon,
fire red in summer;

you comfort the tired and weary
under your shade;

you filter the air of gas and dust,
heat and sound;

mark the passing of seasons,
the turn of the clock;

you are home and inn of creatures:
birds and their young,
fern and moss clinging,
to bees and butterflies;

you stir imagination into the arts,
in song and poetry;

rise up and point to heaven
to enliven the spirit;

with arms outstretched for so long,
you have been calling, pleading,
for a passerby to stop and look up; 

I did but you were no longer there.

NOTE: The last time I passed by the tree it was no longer there. On its stump cut by a chainsaw sat a road worker resting in the noon sun, his gaze expressionless and far.