he remembered when it was cut down
when the arborists left he heard
it moaningcrying through its lowcut stump several neighbourhood familiesfor whatever
reason had stumps left sixfeet tall and
taller
while he was tempted he didnt ask
he
walked past this stump fourfive times a week and every time he made a point to
say hello to it
he was dismayed time was having
its way with it
the
stump was failing disintegrating
its
once hoary outer bark that encircled the vascular cambium that remnant of xylem and phloem xylem the
sapwood phloem distributing sap sugar throughout the tree its roots the tree rings was crumbling decrepitno longer intact breached time and again
he walked around the stumpguessing
its circumference (C) school C equals 2 pi r (radius) he didnt
think he had to explain pi it was approximately 12feet not a small tree old he was stunned as he counted his
way incounting his yearshis life that more than twothirds remained
he counted 219 rings
that was eight years ago
the rings were pulling apartresembling something more akin to a checkerboard than a dartboard
he disliked thinking of it
in terms of games
but then life is a game
155preferred, Saturday,
10 6. 23
1114, day-between-2-Ts, 5 7.
23
No comments:
Post a Comment