New Poem

Just for you guys. This poem was inspired by the prompt "what do you know how to do?" and of course first thing that came to mind (not even kidding) was how to identify trees in new england. enjoy. love you all

Treetops

Come with me, and we’ll waltz

The forest in winter together.

I’ll show you the difference

Between white pine and white ash

(The answer to which lies in their

Geometry, in their whorls and leaves).

We’ll sample the pure flavors,

The mint gum bud of the gray birch

(You chew it straight off the tree),

The sugar water sap of the maple

(You slurp it right from the steel bucket),

The undiluted taste of real snow cones

(And it’s okay if there’s some dirt in it).

Don’t worry if you accidentally eat

Hemlock leaves (it’s not the poisonous kind).

We’ll trek through the trees, and I will

Show you all my favorites.

We’ll hug the black cherry tree

(Which has delightfully crackly bark),

We’ll make faces to the yellow birch

(Which has wonderfully reflective skin),

We’ll shake the quaking aspen

(Which will sound like a rattle snake),

We’ll stroke the verdant fir leaves

(Which are soft and smooth to touch).

Soon, you will know them all so well

That you won’t even need your coat,

And we’ll climb and scale and nest in

The treetops of majestic sugar maples

(Which, with their opposite branching,

Constitute excellent climbing trees).

Make sure you bring a nice picnic, and

Perhaps a blanket and a book or three

(A piano would be stupendous, too,

If you can manage it; if not, a guitar?),

Because I plan on staying up here

For a good long time, maybe forever.

A maple is a perfectly good home.

I don’t want to have to shimmy down,

I don’t want to have to leave my tree,

I don’t want to have to coast out west,

Back to my too big not-green house,

Where my only tree friend in the world

Is the one in our yard, a Japanese Maple,

And it’s not even a Californian.