he counted the bonegray skeletal shattered rings

                                                      the receding checkerboard stump

husk  scabbing away

                           he counted inward best he could using the point of his jackknife counted loudly  tickedoff year after year  paused  JABbed the knife in

                                           that ring

the year he was born

counted inward  his parents birthyears   his grandparents birthyears

                                                                             now his family was not in America

at its heart pith  center

                       at its conception    203 rings                

he remembered eight years earlier when it was cut down its stump savaged random crisscrossed inchdeep cuts  chemical tossed on it to render it quicker

                                            defaced it

made it an eyesore

distasteful

when he walked past ears seared by the cutting blades twelve feet of trunk remained

later that afternoon

returning home

                  he stopped

to mourn

he remembered now

                    on a knee knife in his pocket   submitted     he knelt on both as he remembered hearing  the

     tree

 moan   weep

1355,  Saturday,  10  6. 23

0924,  Moanday,  15  7. 24

Mason Proffit  Buffalo  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX2SSRDIEO8