My wife and I live in a moderately-sized garden apartment complex. The landlord provides two garbage dumpsters for tenant use. Some curious objects end up in these receptacles. Baby furniture, books, and obsolete electronics find their way to their green metal coffins for disposal. Today was unusual, in that someone left a young, and quite dead, tree next to one of the dumpsters.
The tree had no leaves, no buds, but some significant branch development. Had it remained in the earth, the tree would have been at least two heads taller than I am. That the tree still possessed its shallow root system surprised me. It's not easy to uproot a tree, even one with a precarious hold on the underworld. In my walks around the apartment complex, I had not noticed any trees perpendicular to the ground. The winds had not seemed especially severe; recent heavy rain might have softened the area where the tree grew, but I don't think it was swept away by watery forces.
A few weeks ago, landscapers tidied the complex's lawns and shrubs. They would certainly have disposed of a tree marked for elimination. OK, so for now, the dead tree's presence remains enigmatic.
Over the years in the complex, some tenants have used trees as expressive conduits for their emotions. One woman found some stray branches, put them together, and proceeded to indiscreetly pray over them. While no one quizzed her about the inspiration for her religious fervor, the complex's super firmly told her to move her shrine out of the parking lot's sole driveway.
I wonder what the woman would have done with today's dead tree. What spirit, what source of mystic revelation, would have been her reason to pray?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment