For Patricia Lance and Mildred Graham

My avocado tree is wide and tall
Heavy and massive a hundred years old
Here in December the great green tears fall
When wind breathes warm or when rain drizzles cold
I cannot bear to think it is in pain
No they are tears of solidarity

I think of those I loved and lost again
My tree knows this as trees know everything
And lightly drops these green gifts down to me
I gather them as the morning bells ring
The bells which counted out the mortal span
Of those who lived and died beneath this tree
So we are all alone now tree and man
And who knows of the future after all

I have never tasted merely gather
These our green treasures dropped down from the sky
From the soft bed of leaves and would rather
Give them to somebody else who will die
But who is alive now along with me
I pass along these tears of man and tree

Under the lawn forgotten but not gone
Evergreen avocado tree and me

+Steven Curtis Lance



When this you see remember me

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