\ngiving you a place to grieve.
\nGiving me time to let go.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Severed.jpg\")
You lie there motionless.
\nYour grand scale remains evident even though you have been carved up, into
\nwhat seems like a million pieces.<\/p>\n
I witnessed them hack you up from the top down, limb by limb.
\nFirst your branches swan dived downwards, the leaves rattled as they softened
\nthe blow and bounced off the soft moss-covered ground of the woods.<\/p>\n
The whining of the chainsaw, the sound of intrusion, the unmistakable sound of
\ndestruction, screamed piercingly, drowning out all other screams.
\nNo one could compete.<\/p>\n
Yet you stood there, tall and proud, even though you were stripped bare.
\nNaked and exposed.
\nDefiant.<\/p>\n
I felt a nagging dread, and then a sharp tear as you fell to the ground with a
\nhorrific thud that traveled up through the soles of my feet.
\nI heard you fall. You made a sound.
\nYour massive moan of final aspiration.<\/p>\n
Against your will, you crushed all beneath you.
\nYour own offspring perished under your weight.
\nCollateral damage they called it.
\nUnavoidable, they said.<\/p>\n
We attempted a search and rescue, but as in most cases, only a few were
\nsaved. I wonder, with an angst I cannot fully explain, how many others left us,
\nthose we cannot see, those who were hiding in your canopy.<\/p>\n
You lie there motionless.
\nYour limbs scattered amongst your now-dead leaves.
\nIs there solace in knowing they will return to the soil?<\/p>\n
You lie there motionless, baking in the hot sun from the newly opened hole in the
\nsky. Does she heal you? Or burn you slowly?
\nAre you still able to wish upon the stars?
\nWhat would you wish for now?<\/p>\n
I long to turn away from your crime scene.
\nI long for you to disappear.
\nI long to forget the destruction.
\nCaused by my own bidding.
\nI am almost suffocated by my sorrow.<\/p>\n
I pleaded to have you moved out of sight.
\nEvidence erased.
\nBut there you lie.
\nMotionless.<\/p>\n
Too big to move quickly, it will be a slow and difficult clean up.
\nI will not be able to forget that easily.<\/p>\n
Disks of flesh reveal your age, and I find that I don\u2019t even know how to
\nbegin to say I am sorry.
\nHelpless.
\nYou were unable to defend yourself.
\nDid you know how much I didn\u2019t want to do it?
\nYou were still green from the fruits of summer, and aging had not yet taken over.
\nI felt the pain of your loss long before you exhaled for the last time.<\/p>\n
I feel anguish as I look at you lying there.
\nMotionless.<\/p>\n
In my selfishness, I still want you gone, moved out of sight, where maybe I can
\nforget. Not that I want to forget you, but forget my actions, my guilt.
\nAs if I had been the wielder of the sword.
\nI am guilty, yet to be charged, likely to get away unscathed.
\nSo I torment myself instead.<\/p>\n
Did you know what was happening when we wrapped a bright blue ribbon
\naround you?
\nDid you understand what you were chosen for?
\nWhen I put my hand on your thick and weathered bark and whispered, \u201cgoodbye my friend\u201d, did you know what was about to happen?<\/p>\n
Helpless.<\/p>\n
I remember how you swayed in the wind.<\/p>\n
Your leaves, synchronized, danced a wonderful swirling waltz, rustling as they
\nbrushed against each other as the wind circled the narrow opening above me.
\nThe wind whispered secrets I could not understand.
\nBut I knew you did.<\/p>\n
What happens now, as you lie there motionless?
\nWhat happens to your memories?
\nYour secrets?
\nHave I erased them? Or will they slip away, carried off by the wind?<\/p>\n
Your stump remains in place like a headstone marking where you lie under the
\nsoil. Your stump now offers a place to sit. Like the giving tree, always generous to
\na fault.<\/p>\n
There were others too.
\nThey lie motionless as well.
\nFallen giants.<\/p>\n
I am glad you weren\u2019t taken away too soon.
\nSo I can bear witness. Face your suffering as well as my own.<\/p>\n
In the spring, I will plant flowers in the open meadow that was created with your
\ndeparture and now serves as your grave.<\/p>\n