the presence of absence

 

Of Loss and Gain

absence can be a presence:

we had to remove a great oak a few months ago,

and I can feel where it was

in the emptiness of what its presence meant,

I see how the large oak trees that shared its world

leaned away from where it was,

and now can allow their branches

to reach back into the space it once used,

no longer does it seem true, though,

that trees seek dominance over their peers,

such as we used to project onto them,

we declared a struggle for dominance "in tooth and claw,"

that a tree hogged the Sun while in competition with its peers,

instead it seems true now that each plant 

appreciates what is possible for it,

and does its best to maximize its own growth,

while often it considers and acts upon the needs of its neighbors,

that it doesn't wish ill of its neighbors,

the way humans often can do,

we projected our own selfishness 

onto plants and onto other animals,

when a hole in the canopy appears,

I wonder if the surviving plants 

feel both the possibilities, 

and the loss.

by Henry H. Walker

April 20, '25