The maples stood outside our dining room door
October, so brilliantly red
Their seedlings spun like little whirligigs
Then in winter we feared they were dead
The willow was our childhood favorite
It sat at one corner of our yard
A wonderful tree for us kids to climb
Though reaching its top could be hard
The Norway pines were so tall and straight
But their cones contained goo that was sticky
We used two Norways for goal posts
Two others held a swing for sweet Vicki
The oaks were our most majestic trees
Their acorns could fill a large barrel
We used those nuts for our acorn wars
One entered our yard at great peril
The birches were perched on our riverbank
Clothed in their elegant bark
We’d peel it off to write secret notes
Each tree with its own watermark
We had a box elder on our front lawn
It too was a fine tree to climb
We lost a chameleon on that tall tree
I still dream we’ll find it sometime
The cedars had the most delicate cones
The deer came and fed in the night
These were trees with a fragrant smell
They grew where the sun was less bright
The blue spruce was a most elegant tree
Its branches were too dense to climb
We thought it our year-round Christmas tree
So Santa was near all the time
The tag alder, sadly, were a second-rate tree
They grew in the swamp in profusion
I used them to build my secret camp
It was alder that gave me seclusion
The sumac lived in our field in the back
Its fruits were bright spikes of red
I’d bring a bouquet to my mother
Though she actually liked trillium instead 
No comments:
Post a Comment