When it's a birthday

or a holiday, or the beginning of school, or the end of school, or you see a barrette, or a button, that belonged to her, you wonder what life would have been like if she were still alive.

the tree is stunted

in front of the fire station where it lived inside the scaffolding
for more than three years when they renovated the building next door
and crammed its young limbs into holes not big enough for them to grow
and the seasons came and went but the little tree, sister to the one
next door that evaded the truss of the scaffolding and is now tall
and thriving, began to sicken, and yellow
bitten into by its enemy, the scaffolding that
would not let it grow.

When I look at the tree, I think of the time when life included her,
and the limb was young and healthy.

This is too direct a comparison, but I pass the stunted tree
every day and think it is my sister, and wonder how much longer
before they chop it down for good.


Street with stunted tree on left, other tree on right. The building while restoration took place was surrounded by scaffolding.


What it looks like What it should look like