Workmen came to my favorite vegetable garden today. Big, brawny men with evil-looking machines.

They took down a stand of trees overlooking the garden. Strong, healthy, beautiful trees with long, happy lives ahead of them.

I wept.

trees fall haiku

           tall trees shadow dance
       do-si-do with tomatoes
           knowing not what comes

       heat's sultry shimmer
           chainsaw buzz hangs in the air
       the harvest begins

           leaves shiver and quake
       scream of metal against wood
   they splinter, fall, die