I told the pretty little hornbeam, forty years ago,
that little maple sapling will not bother you,
I’ll keep it lifted and away.
There’s room for both, I said.

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The spruce looming at the bottom of the orchard was a seedling then,
its siblings all harvested for Christmas trees,
except one pine also grown too big for Christmas.
They’ve grown up entwined a quarter century since.

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Good year for cones on the high branches.

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The trees are transparent now
to the sky and the ridge across the valley
for half the year a solid mass of green.

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See through down to the branch.

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See right through the unending woods, almost.

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In every quarter see the horizon of ridgetop and sky.

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The leaves will be beautiful when they return.
But we’ll miss the long view through the silver trunks
just as much as we miss their dense green cloak.