Oh listening tree,
where are your children from your
aged womb of trunks, tracks and
treasures…who will wear your crown
of glory from what you have
birthed and learned?
I wonder my listening one,
did you learn acceptance from your
leaves changing color as I did in
having strands blend from black
to gray to glistening silver in the sun
or did you consider tinting (what
man calls) your undesirables
to remain the same year round?
Like you, my listening friend
ancestry was once spread vast
wide with deep roots from the
south of Mississippi to the
northern shores of Lake Michigan
but now my branches are few
sparsely connected…. many have
died a death of time and chance,
a broken, lonely heart or merely
faltered in mind and body…yet
I am here, I am here now
I am here now to learn
I am here now to learn to value
the gift of legacy and that
which time cannot buy.
©Glendal Wallace 2026
Glendal Wallace -Poet and Author 