Any Tree

Abstract

Any Tree Jamie Elliott Keith (bio) It can be any treethat changes everything, the boisterous sapling sprungfrom a ridgetop, youthful boughs yearning toward the sunlong before town stretched its domestic tendrils into the woods,before streets were laid and power lines strung, before the neighborsand the homes. It can be the towering tulip tree, lower limbs trimmed from yearto year to create a high canopy that filters dappling sun acrossa lush green lawn. It can be the winged elm whose thick trunk lifts its archingarms to the sky, one from which a father ties long nylon cords tetheringa swing that skims along the ground. It can be the red maple whose high branchescatch the fancy of an onrushing storm— [End Page 102] those dark winds that whip and danceand roar and tangle among the lofty green— whose knotted roots grip the earth in earneststruggle to hold its stand. It can be any tree who’s clung to life allits measured days and then succumbs to Nature’s ferocity, feet slipping in the mud,taproot snapped with an ominous crack and in one fell thump crashes uponthe woman next door, mother of three.And in the morning, the sound of chainsaws gnashingtheir teeth against that lowered mast echoes in concentric and ever-expanding circleslike a drop of rain falling on the surface of a pond. [End Page 103] Jamie Elliott Keith Jamie Elliott Keith lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she writes and volunteers in the community. She has recent work in Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, The Tule Review, Rust + Moth, and forthcoming in The James Dickey Review. She is co-editor of the anthology Familiar Landscapes, published by Iris Press in 2015. Copyright © 2018 Berea College