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I
am the total stand of trees
on a shady hill
for so many years.
My mother is soil at my roots
I speak kindly of her
for she forested this slope with other
tree sisters and brothers.
In winter, we are leafless and with elegance
we lean and hold our pose for an entire season.
Together, we make a canopy of green in spring.
This shades people’s houses and muffles noisy
roads below us. We try to ward off soot from various
engines flying overhead. But sometimes it clogs our pores
and dulls our leaves. This winter, we are doing fine. Lots of us
have been trimmed back in other snippets of forest to avoid interference
with electric wires. Sometimes a little judicious pruning is good.
I am happy I have been allowed to stand here for this long. I am part of a Paper Trail.
It is a little piece of quasi- public property owned by a paper company. I suppose they have the right to all our wood. But so far,
they have let us live here for 75 years, at least. It’s so good to be young.