Goodbye, Leaning Firetree, Goodbye

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

The leaning firetree from afar, along Regalado Avenue, going to
Commonwealth Avenue, QC

Firetree (Delonix regia) in bloom leaning precariously

45 degrees towards Regalado Ave., Fairview, QC 2010

An arch and a crown you make
for all passersby to greet and honor;

your trunk and limbs reach out
in friendly handshake and embrace;

you send confetti year round,
green in monsoon, fire red in summer;

you comfort the tired and weary
under your shade;

you filter the air of gas and dust,
heat and sound;

mark the passing of seasons,
the turn of the clock;

you are home and inn of creatures:
birds and their young,
fern and moss clinging,

bees and butterflies;

you stir imagination into the arts,
in song and poetry;

rise up and point to heaven
to enliven the spirit;

with arms outstretched for so long,
you have been calling, pleading,
for a passerby to stop and look up;

I did but you were no longer there. ~

NOTE: The last time I passed by the tree it was no longer there. On its stump cut by a chainsaw sat a road worker resting in the noon sun, his gaze expressionless and far.