Postcards
By Annette Basalyga
1. Visiting Pennsylvania
 puts trees in my head,
 hills turned in ash and maple,
 and along the road, sumac and shrubs
 I can’t identify. One vignette:
 a farmhouse, pond, and willow,
 that Oriental tree, its yielding nature
 etched adamant in watered silk.
  I’m that, or would be.
2. On Saturday, all afternoon
 a gardener kills by appointment
 a tree I’ve known since childhood.
 Its roots endanger water lines.
 The allegory’s there, but I’m
 more interested in how the work is done
  and if I’ll like the view.
3. Evenings there’s nothing much to do.
 My children coax a story. I think of how
 one lucky lady threw magic seed
 into the fallow ground. When I wake up tomorrow
 will I find the tree time grew?
 Already Easter angels climb by handholds and kneeholds
 to a place they guess.
 They promise no miracles but ascend
 bough after bough in the clear air.
 They nod to each other.
  They encourage each other.
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