Another Reason Why I Wish the House Next Door Had Not Sold, Though It Is Still Abandoned
Out my second story window I would see great branches
flowing from an unseen maple’s trunk, striding on the air
to the roof of the house next door.
A month ago two men climbed the tree
to the roof. I watched them slowly saw, saw away
anything they could reach. The new view’s an old metal roof
snow sliding down its creases, winter’s white sky
and a single wren on the tip of tender branch up
where saws could not reach. I used to see squirrels,
a dozen in an hour, traveling branches like highways;
now while I don’t see anything I still hear them
in the gutter over my own window. But I keep looking
where they used to be: the deepest view an empty one
Translations from the English 
and how!
This moves me on a very personal level. We saw this happen with our new neighbors with every tree and lilac bush that separated our properties, and now we wait for the inevitable day the white pine comes down to allow a wider driveway. Forgive me, I want to say, if I care more about sheltering owls and songbirds and even the chipmunks that savage my annuals than I care about sheltering your truck from the snow. In short, I feel your pain!
Nice Jeff 🙂