TheBanyanTree: THREE TREES

[smack58 at nycap.rr.com]

(slow smile) Thank you so much!  Sharon
---- Mike Pingleton <pingleto at gmail.com> wrote: 
awesome.

On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 11:58 AM, <smack58 at nycap.rr.com> wrote:

> Went to the park with the dogs yesterday and saw the "three trees" that
> inspired this poem. They are at their peek of fall splendor (if I have
> already posed this, I don't remember, so please forgive me):
>
> THREE TREES
>
> Three trees stand in a row
> ... like sentinels
> guarding the tennis courts in the park.
>
>
> I watch them take turns
> In spring
> bringing forth their buds
> at different times according
> to exposure
> to the light
> to the sun.
>
>
> I watch them
> in autumn
> when the exposure
> to the elements--
> the wind
> the chill
> the night frosts,
> decides their dress
>
>
> and undress.
>
>
> The first is quick
> to change,
> like a flash in the pan
> a one night stand
> brazenly spinning its glory
> for all to see
> in a moment
> in a splash of time.
>
>
> Then stands stripped and naked against the sky.
>
>
> The second follows
> close behind
> for now the weather
> has an easier reach,
> and the slow glow--
> not as breathtaking
> as the first
> gives a different pleasure,
> a slow drifting of the light
> of the color
> easing slowly into its nakedness.
>
>
> The bare eye at first unaware of its undressing.
>
>
> But the third remains
> in its summer green
> long after the others,
> living further against the wood
> having been protected at its back
> and until now to it's front
> and slowly
> carefully
> as a virgin dresses
> for her first
> formal dance
> the leaves
> tenderly edge
> first with yellow
> then with gold
> only to spread
> gently into red.
>
>
> And then today
> at last
> in the morning
> in the mist
> in the chill
> with frost crunching beneath my feet,
>
>
> I see her.
>
>
> Full in her glory
> at last
> standing alone
> among the gray hues
> of the others...
>
>