EVERGREEN CODE OF THE WEST
- Express shots from earth to God
- bold straight trunks, our branches
- fragile afterthoughts useful only
- for briefly collecting snow which
- we may or may not let fall
- as you pass among us,
- if the wind visits,
- if the temperature rises a degree or two,
- if the weight begins to annoy.
- You want to hang a swing,
- build a tree house,
- climb one of us for the view?
- Do not mistake us for the amiable
- eastern oaks you remember so fondly.
- We are not here for your amusement
- but for our own purposes,
- which we are under no obligation to reveal.
- Did you call us the-hell-with-you trees?
- You seem to imagine your opinion matters.