new beginning for an oak tree

On July 15, 2014,
this was
the oak tree.
Planted by a
forgetful squirrel,
the little sapling
had grown
over the decade
and a half
into a huge
roof-scraper
with
thrusting branches.

By July 17, 2014, this was the oak tree.
All of its reaching,
questing branches
had been lopped off,
one by one,
until only the trunk remained.
Then, that, too, had been
pulled to the ground
with a mighty
THUMP!
The tree surgeon
who had felled the oak,
knew of my respect
for the tree. He knew I did not want it taken to a dump to rot.
The tree, a living thing, responsible for supplying life-giving oxygen into the atmosphere, deserved better treatment than to be banished to a trash heap.
The tree surgeon carved the trunk into manageable hunks, then stacked them outside my backyard fence.
And so they have stayed until today.
The pieces, mostly, were too unwieldy and heavy for me to handle.

Not so for the burly man from Detroit.
He had come in response to my ad on Craigslist.
"Oak for firewood", I had titled it, letting folks know I wanted the wood put to use.
He's planning to do that this very weekend, this Memorial Day weekend, using the wood in his smoker, in his firepit.

Now, the oak tree which once occupied this space is well and truly gone.
I was not prepared to mourn its loss again.
Perhaps, as long as it was right there,
the loss was mitigated.
But this is only a loss
for me.
For the Michigander,
the tree has provided
a gift for him
and his friends
to share,
all summer and beyond.
I am grateful to be part of that cycle of life.
Reduce, reuse, recycle, my dears.
We have but the one Earth.
There is joy to be had in sharing its great wealth.