Cutting Down the Paper Maple

If you plant a tree too close to the house

and it grows for several years, ten, fifteen feet,

but it’s not doing so well either—

the leaves are crinkly and thin—there are too

 

many bare twigs—the only thing you can do

is cut it down.  I never really liked it

anyway.  I tell my friend I want to grow closer

to You, to surrender to You, but dying

 

is too tedious in fact, morning after morning,

and sometimes I’m so afraid.

I’d much rather fire up the chainsaw and bite

into those branches, one by one.

 

Clear out the space.  Sawdust

flying.

 

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