Gray swirling clouds, gusts of wind followed by an eerie stillness and a heaviness in the air that we can’t quite name, but the sensation sends us scrambling to bring in the potted plants, get the cars under cover and pray for the protection of tender crops.
And so our Sunday afternoon began. We waited in houses and barns. Calling or texting back and forth, “What’s it doing down/up/over there?” Amidst the fat drops and smatterings of pea hail a finger of wind flicked down into the back yard, tossing an outdoor-cushion storage chest off the porch into the grass leaving the cushions in their chairs untouched; and without a sound, snapped the last of two limbs from our Globe Willow. This playground, home and haven laid down without so much as a flash of lightning or clap of thunder to mark the event.
Monday, May 30, 2016
The Tree
By Tom Splitt
Last branch standing
The calm quiet strength of a tree
Anchored deep in the earth
Reaching high in the sky
The calm quiet strength of a treeMay 24, 1999, JSB – 4yrs, Kate – 2yrs.
The calm quiet strength of a tree
Full of life from its roots
To the tiniest branch
The calm quiet strength of a tree
Aug, 20, 1997, The Tree, JSB -21mos, Kate -11mos
And oh, how it comforts me
How it teaches me
Without a sound
Then I realize at once
That this tree and I are one
In eternityMay 2001
The calm quiet strength of a tree
From the weight of its trunk
To its delicate leaves
The calm quiet strength of a tree
The calm quiet strength of a tree
Showing anyone near
All the secrets of time
The calm quiet strength of a tree
Copyright 1994 Tom Splitt The Tree
Tomorrow begins a four part series of a 2008 short story “Stay”.
Tune in next week for the graduation edition of Just Because You Can…
C C Cedras
K R Brorman
S A Young
2 Comments
June 3, 2016 at 2:51 pm
This is making me cry. The photos of wee JSB and Kate are precious.
June 3, 2016 at 7:03 pm
You should have been here for the great photo hunt last night. *sniff* Memories around that tree for 23 yrs!