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Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Late Frost the Down in the Dirt Sept.-Dec. 2020 issues collection book		get the 420 page Sept.-Dec. 2020 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

Maple Inspiration

Richard K. Williams

There is a maple tree
Near the property line
That delineates
My neighbor’s yard, from mine

I have noticed that while
The rest of nature is fairly
Bursting with renewed life
This trees four trunks

Are black and dead
No buds are apparent
Leaves do not exist. Its
Branches as brittle as

The dry brown leaves
Of last Autumn
Trapped beneath the tangles
Of the surrounding bushes

Even robins won’t alight
Upon its spindly upraised arms
Bare and unmoving in the breeze
Sometime this summer

I’ll be forced to cut it down
Because it has made the transition
From life to death for no
Visible or apparent reason

It reminds me that everyone
Including myself
Will pass far too quickly
Suffering a lack of closure

But I refuse to believe we pass
Unnoticed; each one, every blade
of grass, every tree, every life, contributes
no matter how small or singular

Each existence adds to the sum
Whether we recognize it or not
Our contribution to this life matters
The universe is too vast for our

Simple minds to comprehend
We may never know the lives
We’ve touched, let alone
The lives we’ve changed

Don’t allow yourself to feel insignificant
Within the vastness of the cosmos
You may have no concept of your contributions
Even if it’s as small, as a dead maple tree

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