My Friend The Tree

[Author's Note: This was my entry for the Geauga Park District's 25th Annual Nature Writing Contest. It did not place at all. Still, I liked it, so here it is.]

It comes clear, with no cut for perfection
The introduction of a companion cut by selection:
Cousin to Yggdrasil, or the rainforest in Brazil
Cut half empty, and I’m left half full
Of the shame for sharing the blame
Of taking the same and making it plane:
Lumber for houses and structures is the name of the game.
Sure, we need shelter, else we’re helter skelter
Without a roof over our heads, no walls. Then we’re dead.
But when we replace a space of trees with inedible grass
Our iconoclast finds its way to the head of its indelible class.
Our world tree is whirled free, and no longer is my hurled plea
Heard, not a word, and no branches are left to encircle me.
So, put down the axe, and relax your backs,
For I’m not cutting back, I’m cutting no slack,
I’m coming to you here like Seuss’ Lorax.
“I speak for the trees,” was the message he’d preach,
Giving foul fellows who felled trees a treatment of the third degree.
I come to you now in defense of my friend,
Who cannot speak, but I beseech: seek thy portend.
Without our wood, our words would not carry that far,
For the trees breathe our breeze, and I believe we should be wary of our war
Against the element that is relevant to our continued development
And I can see clearly now, I’m nearly now realizing what that little fellow meant.
We all need the trees for carbon exchange.
And we can take a walk down the block, leave the car for a change.
The trees take our breath away, turn our CO2 to free O2,
Sending fresh air to the Earth, care of me and of you.
Oxygen from Carbon Dioxide, and Carbon Monoxide,
Because we no longer pull our carts with the beast that wears the oxhide.
A tree in the park has bark that’s no worse than its bite,
But at home, the standing timber has been called quite a blight.
Let’s make peace with dendroids, and we just might
Extend the branch, whether or not there’s an olive in sight,
And the trees will be pleasing from season to season,
Leafy in spring, and bare in fall for a reason.
So trade in that friend with a saw for one less insidious,
He’s woody, and tall, any might be deciduous.
We all need the trees, and while we can enumerate the ways,
The whys, and wherefores--let’s plant a new one today.

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