.this tree right here and the pale blue sky: a not-tall tale about an image and 2 captions.

I

this tree right here.

there is, to me, no other entity whose image more vividly illustrates the word: majestic. no monarch, no deity. i think i began to regard, to acknowledge this tree a little over a year ago. all the years before? well, i had eyes alright, but such an enchanting presence, i did not behold. did i really have eyes, then? how pitiful! anyhow, i am thankful for eyes that see; and i pray for eyes that don’t stop opening — to the marvels of the universe.

II
most times i wonder after taking a photograph, what would be a cool, apt caption to go with it, should i decide to share the picture online.

III
once upon an afternoon, i took an obscure book off a shelf in an accra library. i thin it was titled ‘Northern Lights.’ the book was an anthology of creative writing by grade school students in some American towns. to indulge or not to indulge? why not, i decided. and it was a decision which turned out with a largely enjoyable consequence.

IV
The Pale Blue Sky. that was the title of one of the many creations i enjoyed in ‘Northern Lights.’ it was a poem, written by a 10th grader called Emily Ewen, a student of a high school in Rochester called john marshall high school. here, the poem’s last quatrain:

i long for the day when

women will be trees

the only thing above them

the pale blue sky.

- now, if that does not evoke an image — naturally majestic — of this tree right here.

V
splendid. is what i thought of The Pale Blue Sky when i first read it. and particularly of it’s last quatrain: lovely; would be a perfect caption for a picture of that magnificent tree, this tree right here.

VI
this morning, i lay in bed with my niece and beloved friend — six year old Pendor who is on mid term holidays. we were looking through pictures i’ve taken on my camera. “what a tree!,” she exclaimed one seeing one of the many photos i’ve taken of this tree right here. and then she added: when you stand on this tree, you can tear some of the clouds.

whoa, there! i thought, another brilliant, definitely corresponding caption for the image.

and therefore, a dilemma: which, between the lovely last quatrain of Emily Ewen’s The Pale Blue Sky and Pendor’s remarkable remark, would be the one caption i would want to use, should i post the image online?

or, perhaps there is no dilemma at all, only a revelation. Emily Ewen writes in The Pale Blue Sky about glorious days towering with trees, with hands grasping the clouds.

VII
imagine that! two young girls — at different times and of even more different spaces — talking abut reaching the skies. and grasping clouds!

how fly is that!