the tree we need

out of balance

the mother bear and her cubs found the Chinese Chestnut tree,

its sweet nuts just ready for her and her young,

so she climbed the tree and spent her day

breaking off branches and dropping them to the ground,

about 1/4 of the tree roughly pruned away

and the dead branches, stripped of chestnuts,

littered the ground like after an American picnic in the 1950s,

I watch squirrels assault my bird feeder

and I recognize that same mentality for “me and mine,”

when we humans stopped limiting our numbers

we did so not because we alone don’t care about balance,

instead, we alone have the power to fully act on our desires,

the bears’ hunger and ours are kin,

we humans need to fit ourselves back into balance

into a reality that won’t kill the tree we need to live.

by Henry H. Walker

June 11, ’13