Before this Pine is Done

When we moved here
there was a plain picket fence
and a giant pine tree

We painted the fence white
then the tree got sick
its tips tinged with red fever

Kids walk by
on their way to and from school
every day, so I made it special

I added a sprinkle of magic to the mundane
tacking up, installing a little elf door
or for fairies and dreams

All ages stop, to wait or knock
all ages smile, at her shade and hope
all ages now notice the tree

They came early one morning
parking the wood chipper outside our window,
waiting for the hour

They've claimed two others
on our street, but ours stands
in defiance and sheer self-reliance

If I could only bottle the woodsy smell
of that dripping syrup, her savory sap
it makes me drool too

And I too feel like one of the children
when I smell her sweltering bark, perfuming in the sun
making me want to simply play and run
(just for fun)
before this pines perishing time is done.

"Obsessed by a fairytale, we spend our lives searching for a magic door and a lost kingdom of peace."-Eugene O'Neill