SOLSC '25 Day Nine: Mother oak

 

I am participating in The Two Writing Teachers' Slice of Life Story Challenge, writing every day during the month of March.  My theme this year is "Outdoors".

I call her "Mother Oak"

watching over our yard

home to squirrels and possums,

doves and bluejays,

titmice and chickadees,

and the occasional hawk

She must have been here for decades

before the thirty-five years we've shared her land;

my arms reach only half 'round her trunk

The skies were blue with cottony clouds today

so I sat outside and visited with her

the stark reminder of the loss of a tree-mate

left on the porch with me, prompted me to rise

and take Mother's picture, from this angle and that

just...in...case

But I can't bear that thought for long

The hole in the yard, in the sky, would be too big

I think my heart would break, if I were to lose 

another mother

So I sit, and listen to the wind blow the chimes

hanging from the eaves, and tussle the branches

holding Mother's leaves.