A Year in Trees

A late-summer hurricane rips
through east-coast woods.
Limbs torn from sockets
lie strewn across the lawn –
Fallen heroes on a battlefield.
Gaping wounds on tree bodies
breathlessly beg for help.
Old sages give up, sigh, stumble
And tumble over,
their feet undignified bare.
 
October brings unseasonable snow,
heavy and wet on orange, yellow and red.
Slight maidens in wispy party dresses
buckle under the weight of
their unsolicited winter coats.
Fleshy fall sprigs bruise, twist,
burst apart
and dangle lifeless.
 
On warmer winter days
workers with chainsaws
fell the heavily wounded.
Ancient colossi
take a last majestic bow
before perishing in the underbrush.
Unmarked stump-gravestones
testify of once proud heroes.
 
Late March exhales a frosty breath
over spring’s shy virgins,
ravaging blushing Magnolia blossoms,
leaving them humiliated,
in ruined
grey-brown rags.
 
Finally, April explodes in scarlet buds,
luminescent green, white mock pear
Overnight the underbrush fixes
a band-aid over the tree-devastation.
New life hides evidence of this
untree year.
 
But on the horizon,
voids once filled
by gracious giants
weep.
Emptiness
where once there was
 life.
 
 Amanda Smith
Written 2012
​Translated 2018