Each poetry menu features a selection of 10 poems.
From time to time, we will change these selections.
Be sure to check back.
They Lived In My Backyard
They Lived In My Backyard
Remembering . . .
In My Backyard . . .
How It Used To Be
How magnificent is my yard now
Manicured lawn
Blue lake
Sandy beach
Shady trees
Years ago, me remembers
Twisted brush, weeds, tall grass, briars
And . . . two magnificent trees
They lived with their trunks touching at the base
Beautiful white-grey bark
Towering upwards
So close that limbs could not extend toward each other
only outward
In this marriage, each made up for the other
What a sight
Side by side
Each of their outstretched arms
made a perfect half circle
What beauty in the middle of my backyard
Yet torture me did they
Stood between me did this couple
and my view of the beautiful lake
The lake! my inspiration!
I could not escape them
from every window
they were all I could see
Hired a man one day to take them down
Hired another to bulldoze them under
to fill in ground to the side of my house
never saw it happen
in the morning they were there
in the afternoon they were buried.
I was conveniently away
when the crime took place
Now years later Spring is upon us
Hearest I the rustling of budding leaves
from the remaining trees
Fortunate are they to be on the periphery of my land
Now it is late afternoon
The light, light green of Spring on their leaves
Glittering with the golden lowering sun
Cluthcheth I the trunk to my chest
Wrapping my arms around it
How nice the bark feels upon my cheek;
Then in a loving embrace kisseth I this tree
Look on do I to where the couple once lived
and on to their burial place.
How have I injured this earth
And thus deprived myself
What sullen guilt do I feel
Now my neighbor me spyeth
How foolish do I now feel
Pretendeth I to be examining the tree
He would never understand
Back to reality do I come
But in fact I think I was just there