Trees

If Nature’s wrath we could appease By sacrificing noble trees, Then She should well be satisfied, For scores of trees have up and died. I reconnoitered city blocks Where people stood, absorbing shocks Of once majestic elms and oaks Destroyed by Mother Nature’s strokes. Some split in half, their branches strewn And lives extinguished, years too soon; So helplessly they languish, prone, Their false facade of vigor blown. The storm recedes, the damage done, The clean-up barely just begun; But roots and hearts alike were torn. We sweep up limbs and leaves and mourn.