TREE

LAST TREE ON EASTER ISLAND 

               for Sandra Epp Dec 1, 2012

The last tree on Easter Island

The last tree on Clayquot Sound

Who cut, who cut it, who cut it down?

I cut, I cut it , I cut it down.

The Limber Pine, a seedling when Columbus headed west.

It’s I that weeps not Willow, She bends to caress.

A Joshua in the desert & my tongue so parched.

We kids we swung on a rope from the Golden Larch 

& Maple scarlet, we put my father in the home for the lost.

A Chickadee dee dee in the Cottonwood frost.

It’s Crab Apple wine & the new bride blushes rose.

& Sumac tea is red as desire if you’re all alone.

I’m choking from the Choke Cherry on your crazy dare.

The Spruce caked thick, & breath, my bridal veil.

I kissed you first, so shy, when Magnolia bloomed.

The viewing done, the Poplar bark so smooth and cool.

The last tree on Easter Island

The last tree on Clayquot Sound

Who cut, who cut it, who cut it down?

You  cut,you cut it , you cut it down.

I climbed the Chestnut for conkers’ spike ball seeds.

The Mangrove swamp after diving off Amber Gris key.

In love with another so I planted Tentpole shoots.
& Whirly Gigs crunched beneath my army boots.

A Tamarack, rain-tipsy after the Home-coming Ball.

The fallen Redwood rotten... a giant lifts up tall.

Cedar Wax-wing in the Mountain Ash, December Morn.

The Paper Birch glowed green the day my son was born.

The Baobob & the Bodhi  & Buddha below.

A platform high in the Elm with Edgar my crow.

The cops cuffed Pa in a Cherry blizzard in May.

The alders shivered silver & I knew I was okay.

The last tree on Easter Island

The last tree on Clayquot Sound

Who cut, who cut it, who cut it down?

We cut, We cut it , We cut it down.