Farewell of a Cottonwood
Almost for a century
A majestic cottonwood tree,
Lonely and salutary,
Waved its leafy branches to the sky,
Adorning the corner where
St. Catherine Street
And Lansdowne Avenue meet
In Montreal.
This giant old poplar of the city
Survived urban growth
And the spread of factories.
It towered to soothe, not to seethe,
Truly a magnificent poem in chlorophyll
Which helped the people of Westmount
To breathe.
Yet the tree had been assaulted
By the stress of pollution
By severe ice storms and draughts,
By its advanced age and exfoliation.
And so on an early summer day
You could hear the screech of metal claws,
The high-pitched whine
Of powerful chainsaws.
The poplar
With its deeply grooved gray-brown bark
Began to tremble.
The petioles on the branches looked dark.
Their serrated triangular leaves
Tried to prance
As they danced their last dance
Saying farewell to the city
And to the world.
poem by Paul Hartal
Added by Poetry Lover
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