Ode to an Oak Tree

Ode to an Oak Tree

I really thought nothing could ever bring down those trees.

They seemed like they grew and thrived with such ease.

They hovered in the storm and the frozen winters.

These three oaks were anything but beginners.

They didn't seem so far and wide when I was small

They blocked out the sun and you couldn't see it at all.

When I was fourteen one fell in a terrible storm

I remember standing on the porch on that fateful morn.

The lightening was sharp and came out of the sky

And when it fell to the ground all I could do was cry

The other two grew until two became one

It was like they both reached right up to the sun

The covered the house, the garden and even the mail box

They hovered over neighbor's houses and the trailer parking lot

They spew acorns in the fall with moss and broken limbs

My mom had us clean up their messes and, I'd curse both of them.

Nothing was better than the shade and the breeze

We never needed a fan just two of these trees.

When we gave strangers directions on how to get to our home

We'd say just look for two large oak trees standing alone

Behind them you will find a house white and green

and the only black family with a mom of eighteen
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Across the street is the only high school in town

Right next to a house that was painted white and brown.

The trees ruined the roof and limbs cluttered the drains

The woodpeckers would peck and the birds they would sang.

Squirrels would throw nuts if you sat down below

At the base of the tree it was hollow you know.

There roots were powerful and ran across the land.

We used them to pop wheelies and jump over them doing hand stands.

I remember when I was five I tried climbing one tree

But instead I missed a branch and scraped up my knee.

I broke a branch one time playing hide and go seek.

Other times they would break because they'd get weak.

Each day before school I would give the tree a hug.

And my mom would holler: "Stop that!" don't you know that trees filled with bugs
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But they were my friends and they would whistle in the wind

I loved to hear those sounds from way back when.

When I became grown I moved far away.

And came back and saw the tree had been cut down that day.

I saw the wood and leaves spread all over the grass.

And it hurt me so bad that I had to ask

'Who cut down the tree and, why did it have to go?"

It was rotting inside, is what I was told.

I looked at the wood and watched neighbors take it away

It may seem silly but, for me, this was a sad day.

Now only one tree standing all by itself.

Now who could it lean on when it needed help.

Since then its stopped growing and is hollow inside

Now my little cousins think it's a great place to hide

I love to hear their moms holler, "Get out of that tree

Don't you know it's filled with bugs and bumble bees?"

That tree has been standing for so long

Proving to all the others that it can go on.

And bring a smile to another young face

And provide for them, a nice hiding place.

I hope it's still there when my time will come.

And when its time is done

We will all see the sun.