There are some who will outlive us all

Lucca Daniel Green
23 July 2020

	There are some who will outlive us all:
	the poplar and pine placed by our hands,
	the oaks and many maples that came
	leaping into the sun-drenched sky
	that year we sprang from human earth:
	these are they who will outlive us all,
	our stewards and memory-keepers,
	whose breath we breathe so greedily.

	There are some who will outlive us all,
	but I’ve planted only so few trees.
	Two pines only in my youth,
	and only one yet lives,
	--though it thrives.
	Two crabapples for him
	--I pulled one, dead,
	from unforgiving dirt--
	a cherry, and two pears.
	May they yet survive.	
 	Only this very season
	have I set earth around
	the roots parched brown
	of a pink-budding dogwood
	and two enduring poplars
	and from seeds collected
	on covetous walks through
	a city, a forest foursquare,
	from a dozen given to Gaia
	as gifts for her nurture,
	one verdant-growing redbud.

	Gods, make them prosper.
	And let us live at least
	until we’ve done our share
	to replenish the earth,
	our Mother who bore us,
	with those stewards
	who will outlive us all.

Recent Poems