sonora2sonoma

Grinding the Birch Trees into Mulch

Saturday morning mayhem

chain saws, leaf blowers

the horrible and insistent roar . .

grinding the birch trees into mulch.

Undoing in a couple of hours

what took decades to establish

altering for decades

the nature of the surroundings.

Bug-infested, they said

not getting enough water

they weren’t the right trees for this location anyway

but the way they used to sparkle

in the early morning light

as the fog retreated gently

giving way to sheer delight

Is a scene not soon forgotten

in the annals of before

and one much more compelling

than the tree-grinders’ roar

Lining the street on both sides

delightful, assuring,

they helped define the character

of this picturesque place.

Plant new trees, some say

different species this time

but the birch trees were planted

in 1989.

Newcomers won’t have any way of knowing

save in pictures

what it looked like

before the steel termites struck

but long after the roar of the wood chipper has faded

the rest of us will remember

like fragments from a dream

what the avenue once looked like

when the birches reigned supreme.

**

20 November 2015

Tim Konrad