One Hundred Year Old Tree

One Hundred Year Old Tree

What did the street tree hear in these last one hundred years?

The hiss of gas lamps at twilight
The cobblestone clumping of horses hooves
On damp misty night

The boast of dough-boys eager to fight
The sober march home
Minds quieted by use of military might

What did the street tree hear in these last one hundred years?

The clicking of heals of fashionable flappers
The bootleg deals and businessmen’s laughter
Life’s routine with each news day
The pain of heart born on Black Tuesday

What did the street tree hear in these last one hundred years?

The train whistle blowing cargoed with CCC boys
Their work, to plant forest
FDR’s radio address said,
“They will purify our air, and give strength to our people”
Three million men productive, proves each tree a steeple.

What did the street tree hear in these last one hundred years?

Men debating if helping Europe was wrong
Union men accused of joining the communist throng
Other prayed that Churchill would stay strong

Echoes of the Infamy Speech
Tails of courage from Normandy Beach

Children trading war medals for ice cream
The GI Bill paid for the home of their dreams

What did the street tree hear in these past one hundred years?

A wealthy family plan their first passenger flight
Quiet voices speak of the McCarthy fright
Bomb shelters planned for the Nuclear night

Television comics questioned for telling jokes
Civil rights speeches give colored folks hope

What did the street tree hear these past one hundred years?

Buses of boomers coming of age
Off to Vietnam another war to stage
Other carry protesters full of outrage

Empty buses turned history's page
But not before John and Robert were murdered
And Martin went the Martyr’s way

What did the street tree hear these past one hundred years?

“I am not a crook”
Broadcast in living color
The president who won 49 states forced to resign

Bass boats and Harley’s transport cheer
America celebrates two hundred years

Coca Cola teaches the world to sing
Mohammad Ali back in the ring
All to the sound of CB radios
And pull tab beers

What did the street tree hear these past one hundred years?

The Challenger blows,
Every school child quiet as a mouse
Mount St Helens fires impossible to douse

Michael’s Thriller playing in every house
Moonwalk shuffle heard down the hall
Pop culture and Reagan make Gorbachev
“Tear down that wall”

What did the street tree hear these past one hundred years?

Put your money in the dot coms buddy
The Gulf War fought, the results are muddy

Another President impeached.
The definition of 'Is' somehow out of reach.

This One Hundred Year Old Tree is feeling old
They have all done it, I keep hearing told
Those are not the facts if a tree can be bold

A new century and no Y2K, but a
Passenger jet filled with fuel is the
Modern sword in an ideological duel
Shocked voices mumble
We should have been prepared
Why were we fools

The millennial has passed before my listening leaves
A century of violence soaked into my branches
My sustainer giving human kind multiple chances

If you could hear the world as heard by this tree
I think you would knell or fall to your knees

I am stationary
I can’t move about
I have heard men’s hope for a century,
In war and poverty, and when you have plenty

I have heard your love for your sister and brothers
You all spring from the same root
And belong to each other

This truth is deep,
Like my hundred year old roots
Fed by pure water rained
Grime ingested from gutters stained
Listen to a hundred year old tree
What I have heard
Reminds you to laugh
Often to weep.