Light and warmth from many summers given and gone

I still look sadly at the large empty space where the cherry tree once stood. Instead of a huge pink mound of ice-cream between my house and the houses beyond, there is now a vacuum and nothing is masked.

There will be no new leaves to seek the sun or fruit for the birds this year.

The tree became sick and, as with any suffering creature, I had to decide its fate. With buzzing saws it was reduced to mere timber.

I chopped and hacked that wood and stored it in a pile behind the wall, sheltering it from the elements.

Through this winter I have brought those logs into the house and on a cold winter’s evening it has heartened our room with its stored light and heat and brought much pleasure into our lives.

Today I collected the last of it and scrounged around for the last small twigs with which to last the evening.

Tonight we will enjoy the cherry tree for the very last time and I will gaze into the flames, and think of it in all its pomp, and celebrate its long and wonder filled life, and thank it for its gifts.

 

Light and warmth from many summers given and gone

 

Today I collected the last of the twigs,

Sufficient for one more evening.

I scavenged the ground for enough

To provide one final fire.

 

Tonight I will stare at the flame

As it releases the work

Of many decades of labour.

The wood will shine one last time.

 

In beauty it stood proud

And would now have been

In blossom like a pink

Wedding of bloom.

 

In summer its green leaves

Would have sighed under blue skies

And hidden the ugliness

Of brick and tile beyond.

 

Its fruit would have

Briefly hung in rich profusion

Before providing rich pickings

For the birds and ne’er a one for me.

 

And as it releases the

Light and warmth of all those

Years of sun into my home,

I will think of it once more,

And in my heart

I will thank it

For the joy

That it so freely gave.

 

Opher 24.4.2016

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