Poetry
A Lumberjack’s Joke
Pondering a lone tree on a clear-cut ridge.
Jun 25, 2024
Mysterious tree,
just one, in the swath
of clearcut ridge.
Why this one left? Alone?
The hillside expanse,
like a tiger’s loin,
looks moth-eaten,
tufts of former forest
suspended aloft, aloof.
So-called wildlife refuges
or owl nesting sites,
I guess.
But one tree
seems like a lumberjack’s
practical joke.
A poem inspired by the recovering landscape from the Santiam Fire. This ridge, though not harmed by the Santiam fire, was clearcut near the same time. So I include it in my Santiam River Canyon poems. This was Poem #242 of 2022’s poems.