"The Perfect Specimen" (National Poetry Month-Poem A-Day) Day 3
written by Bruce A.
Pandolfo
4/3/17
The Treaty Oak
For
more than five centuries,
A
Southern Live Oak set the scene
an
Austin Texas centerpiece as long as memory,
Treaty
Oak elder's seen this entire country get its feet,
rooted
long before we were ever seeds.
An
ancient arbor of immensity,
average
canopy can peak capped at 50 feet
but
its sprawling branches broadly spanning
a
brawny massive hundred feet across,
its
contortionist form twisted, tinseled in Spanish moss,
The
rings it's got, can you imagine all the things it saw,
The
trials and tribulations of tribal natives
the
languid limbs swaying
waving
in winds bereft of
industrialization,
spied
tribes of Native Americans
assessing
it with reverence,
Seen
Steve meet chiefs achieving land possession
taken
and make a state that became Texas
and it
was there in '22 that one of its brethren
was
chopped and tattooed
to
declare it The Perfect Specimen
Picture
all of the inventions
that
have grown around its bark,
steel
the evolution of lumber
construction
grew more large,
the
Treaty Oak ne'er ceased to grow
and
was given its own park,
People
came far and wide to visit the tree,
to
enjoy its bark and climb, men took a knee
To
take the heart of blushing brides to be,
One
day 1989, someone saw it
it
seemed something sickened her
they
suspected, a simple accident,
in
fact it was much more sinister
The Blighting
Shedding leaves steadily decaying, at a deadly rate its dying,
John Godritus wanted to stop the blighting before it was all detritus
Soil
samples revealed a poison, ample, a vile venom,
which
rendered the Treaty Oak a victim, and a villain out to get em,
The
moment the outrageous announcement made it enraged many,
the
massive tree was suffering at a dastardly assassination,
the
nation chanted angrily, compassionate “we have to save it”
Ross
Perot philanthropically phoned a donation,
a
testament to its immense worth,
a
blank check in a generous gesture,
“its
recovery should be ensured, take whatever measures,
money
is not an object, The Treaty Oak's a treasure!”
John
hung up and got to work, not before a bewildered “Yes Sir”
The
Treaty Oak on TV shows for being blighted,
wild
efforts were made to quell the issue, they even sent a psychic
People
throughout the country wrote the tree and even visited,
dropped
soup cans, meds and cards no matter how insignificant,
“Get
Well”cards, dispelled our Velpar problem not even a little bit,
Some
people even demanded that the bastard hung from a limb of it,
11
grand was offered for any who could identify who the villain is
The
Culled
Suddenly Cindy ascends into the scene, seems she knows this guy,
From the clinic for methadone, he told his method on a ride,
This culpable fella Paul Cullen, a felon, appalling times he fell
on,
fell in love, addicted to his clinic counselor who cruelly culled him
cut him off, his love was ignited, it cut him,
uninvited, just wanted a lovely night it
crushed him that his love was unrequited
The gall of the gal,
he had a gallery of gallons of blight including Velpar,
went to the library to read a tome that held dark spell arts,
The culprit Cullen revolted insulted, if the love he gave her
couldn't cultivate a life with the one he favored,
He'd truncate his love for her,
flooring flora trunks with cult behavior
he crept beneath the canopy, made sure he wasn't visible,
Cullen cursed the gigantic tree, ignobly at the pretty oak,
poured a gallon of poison in a circle, an occult ritual,
A gallon of misguided vengeance, venom and vitriol
The
Trials (Treaty Oak)
While Perot's payroll was buying scientists,
playing roles, trying to stop the giant
artifact arbor from dying,
they lost some awesome limbs of Austin's monolith
A ton of folks would have bet the Oak was done for, doomed,
then someone considered: “what if we could get a bud to bloom?”
One of the transplants took, it looked encouraging
in a companion act of grafting and surgery
they transplanted a nourishing nursing tree,
intervene and interweave, the root systems were merging,
treated the Treaty Oak, now just a third (and hurt) but flourishing
The
Trials (Paul Cullen)
The aforementioned Paul had a felony for his burglary
therefore potentially faced life for his attempt to murder trees
The jury needs a tree to hang him from, but swung him perfectly
Excuses of insecurity, ignored, ensured certainty.
When questioned if there's more important agendas and sentences
“The Treaty Oak was once declared our nation's perfect specimen
What if we were to let this slip? we'd set neglectful precedents”
The Judge expressed this sentiment, thus 9 years Cullen's penance is
To trees? the three Paul ended in, is but a paltry, petty blip.
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| Treaty Oak In Austin, pre-poisoning 1930s |
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