Dolores Chamberlain's poem, My Maple Tree

Dolores at a poetry reading by Charles Simic,
summer of 2018, the Old Stone House in
Brownington, Vermont.  [photo credit, Sylvia Manning]

MY MAPLE TREE

Your branches all around,

Green leaves clinging, still abound.

I left that morning -- you were there.

Your lofty branches filled the air.

When I returned, all I could see

Were piles of what you used to be.

I was saddened to the core;

My maple tree lived there no more.

A trunk, dismembered, stood in place

Where once you were, now empty space.

Six decades you grew and proudly stood.

Gone is your shade, and it was good.

The squirrels around your trunk gave chase.

How fast they moved!  Was it a race?

Birds sang softly high above:

The goldfinch, robins, mourning dove.

How I will miss you, lovely tree.

You really meant so much to me.

I won't forget you, maple tree,

For you live on in memory.

Maple tree across the street from our Barton Public Library where Wednesday Poets meet
at 2:30 p.m., Wednesday, for the second year of winter meetings.

Dolores' poem was published in the Orleans County Chronicle
and the Green Mountain Trading Post