The Crooked Tree
The Norfolk Island pine tree swayed in the light breeze. Its crooked, gnarled bark twisted like a pretzel along its hundred foot tall height.
It stuck up out of place on Fort Myers Beach’s sandy soil. Several severe storms had contorted its limbs like spaghetti.
I’d visited a friend off the island whose neighbor had a sister green forest tree sitting next door. Then I was startled by the screeching sounds of a chain saw. They’re chopping down that pine tree because it’s leaning so much after the hurricane, she explained.
I cringed at the raucous sound splitting my ear but mostly for the loss of the tree of life that gives us oxygen to breathe. It might fall on the house and damage it, she continued.
Might it? Maybe. But maybe not? The soil was shallow and soft, a misplaced tree species from down under Norfolk Island.
But it was Earth Day today, I said as I left, but my friend thought nothing of it.
The sister tree on Fort Myers Beach still stands near the library and I get to see it from the library window when I work. Like a live Christmas tree it is for me today.
By Alice Mack ( 2014)
Fort Myers Beach