Clearcut Agony

CLEARCUT AGONY

winter in new england means that the entire ground is frozen solid –

this is why our cemeteries have their own little ‘houses,’

so that those who cross during winter can have a place to restuntil spring thaw
when Mother Earth will welcome them home…

but today it’s winter in new england

the ground is frozen and for three days

Mother Earth has been shakened beneath my feet –

for three days now the ‘historic trees lining [our beloved] Street’

have been systematically felled, one by one …

these are old trees, huge and majestic,

and as each section falls, the frozen earth reverberates deeply and far…

the trees are diseased –

a bug brought in from Japan that has no known predator here –

there was talk of bringing in its natural predator, a super wasp from Japan,

but that idea was nixed for obvious reasons …

this is a rather drastic, clear cut cutting –

a prophylactic action in attempts to save a preservation project

further up the street from us …

it’s all a horrible situation –

the thudding death and grinding maceration, over and over

this is what it looks like on both sides up and down the street

our tree right across the street

this is the third day of torture for an old NDN woman,

to watch and hear relatives one by one being hacked to the ground -

my feet absorb the vibrations their body pieces make when they contact the ground,

and the dog trembles at the the bomb-like explosions each time ...

i will not mention their voices which i cannot quiet -

like that awful sound in Oregon ...

about which i asked people for months where it came from, but no-one else could hear it -

turned out to be the weeping trees of that lumber-economy state …

To drive our street now (which i rarely do anymore) reveals a battleground of fallen trees

clearly cut down rather than having succumbed to Mother Nature,

the aftermath of which is still tough, but easier on the eyes -

precision cuts betray pre-meditation,

and given what i know of the situation,

i am torn in two, watching loved ones die,

and hoping for a better future for their kind …

fwiw, so far all the downed trees have been rotted inside …

and suddenly there is silence outside –

the clock reveals it is only lunchtime -

the chain saws and shaking earth will return

-NHT

Nay_ho_tze's Medicine Musings