Tuesday, June 2, 2009

But For Two Branches


But for two green branches, the live oak tree is dead. Its beauty lies in its ancient curving skeleton and its being all hung with spanish moss. One clump in particular is notable, not for its size or complexity, but for the lowly image its growing shape brings to mind. Last year, April '08, it was the exact size, shape, and color of a large sewer rat hanging by its tail from a thin brittle twig. The twig itself was the tail of the rat, and hung vertically from a slightly more substantial twig, now dead, that had once grown out of the thick now dead bough that points toward the house. I would never have imagined the rat could survive, hanging in the balance as he did. But there he still hangs, having grown to look more like a possum in May '09.

Let me not forget to mention how the skeletal remains of the live oak frame the sunsets. Last year and this, I strive to stop writing at 7:00 to have dinner on the porch swing and watch the sun set over the bay through the arcing tree trunk. dkm

No comments: