This Tree

 

 

This tree is huge,

has been there since the beginning

when we moved here.

When my son was a young teenager

he had a wooden sword and swung at this tree

damaging its bark with playful ignorance.

We were told it would die,

but over a decade later it lives.

 

Last winter its evergreen leaves turned brown

and I thought that was it, but then the spring came

and now late summer and it is fully green again,

defying its fate.

 

This tree’s roots bubble up from the ground.

They tilted our old shed

so we had to get a new one,

changing the area where we put it on.

Many squirrels play in this tree and leap from its branches

to another tree and back again.

When we had our bird feeder, a hawk would perch

in this tree, watching and swooping down for its meal.

That is why we no longer have a bird feeder.

 

Out of the four trees in our yard,

this tree is my favorite.

It didn’t sprout like the one that is a weed,

soaring and wide and choking out

the sky or like our neighbour’s with its walnuts

toxifying the ground and an overhead danger

in the early fall.

 

This tree is wounded but peaceful.

It is a guardian of our yard and home,

like a friend I can count on,

mostly beautiful, always there.

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Copyright © by Allison Grayhurst 2026

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Synchronized Chaos” October 2026

https://synchchaos.com/poetry-from-allison-grayhurst-18/

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You can listen to the poem below:

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