Earthscape artwork by Andres Amador
Sonnet for a Big Tree
It is the tallest tree in the neighborhood;
its gold leaves drag as nails upon
tar-roofed garage, Victorian coach house,
foursquare townhome, yellow-brick three flat.Its boughs shelter house sparrows,
its branches bow the sky,
and from the peak of its canopy
it can see for blocks.I wonder if it sees past the river
to old neighborhoods, apartments past;
urban campus dorms, Mexican diners;
5 am dives and toothed concrete lakeshore.I envy how it watches them cast shadows
and—at twilight—catch fire in the sun.
