you, me and a macadamia tree

Sunlight slants through tracery of branch and fork in trees

A lace of shifting shadows spun of sunlight, breeze, and leaves

Each silhouette in shadow but a moment on the grass

Like portend dreams of slumber that surface – then they pass

A “stand of trees” a point that’s fixed amid the flux of life

Sentinels of centuries take the long view of our strife

They gift us shade and majesty, point to heights we cannot know

Trap secrets of the universe, stand steady in the flow

Their stillness is prescient in histories sad gyration

And trees there be near you and me that’ll eclipse “civilization”

Our passing goes unnoticed long before they fall

Living with our trees we are not central after all

Alone they stand upon this land rooted in one place

Curing our souls, soil, and air while all around we race

What in life is not improved by a moment in their shade

Just you and me, a macadamia tree – our cathedral in the glade