It's early summer
All the individually potted trees are lined in rows
and ready for sale.
How nice would it be to take one home,
It could be so beautiful.
Sowed in the corner of the yard.
Picture perfect.
You buy the tree.
Just a tiny twig now.
Frail and vulnerable.
On the way home all you can think of
is how beautiful
and how big
and how impressive your tree will be.
The neighbors will admire from windows,
Maybe even acquire a tree of their own.

You plant and water your tree
Enthused for the remainder of summer.
But then, the seasons change.
A long fall, winter and spring
come and finally go.

The next summer you've moved on
from your coveted tree.
Now the work is a chore.

Years pass by and you no longer water the tree.
You no longer trim the branches.
You no longer admire its beauty.

Your tiny tree now touches the sky.
Pushes up against the house.
The roots are disrupting the grass,
creating bulges and bumps
that were never there before.

Cursing the tree,
you decide to cut it down.

Next summer you realize,
you no longer hear the birds singing,
rejoicing for another day to fly.
Your cool, shaded outside relief, gone.

The fall come back and you notice
the absence of crunching leaves.
The way they changed colors so beautifully.
The feeling it would bring.

With sadness in your heart,
You realize what you've done.