Over twenty years ago, Bill planted a sapling.
It was a Red Maple that never turned red in the Fall.
Yellow was always her color.
But this summer she is again sporting her beautiful mantle of green.
Other trees managed to succumb to benign neglect or wicked weather;
- a gigantic Bradford Pear who split in two during a storm called a Durecho,
- a Weeping Cherry who never made it past puberty,
- an enormous Crab Apple who nourished our deer but simply gave up.
But the beautiful Red Maple stayed on as if to comfort and assure,
“I will linger long and grow toward heaven for as long as you may need me.”
Virginia Views 