Poem of the London Plane Sycamore



Sigh…sigh…

My voice is a deep moan.

Do you hear me growing before your home?

I have no concern for your trivial worries,

As year through year I have thrust my body

Like a sore thrumb through the concrete before your house…



Thank you for that one time…placing your hand upon my bark

As some sort of token, a measure of love…you bid your roommate to do the same.

It was a welcome surprise, since oft times I am more likely passed by unnoticed,

As passengers file from the trains under the Fourth Avenue;

Touched by coughs and piles of spittle at my roots

Or graced by the baptism rights of this block’s canine residents.



Do you know what it is like to live like a tree?

To peer through your neighbor’s windows

And tap occasional greetings upon a window pane?

You only like me for your own amusement;

Or should I say, the way I beautify your block.



Some mortal or another

Even tacked a proud label upon me,

So passersby might know the species I was:

London Plane Sycamore…

Yes, you label everything…don’t you?



But London Plane Sycamore I am not;

I am the dingy resident of a dingy block

Giving up my airs for you to breathe.

Yet, I should not complain

For my reason for living is only to witness,

Only to live…

These are my goals

Until I am cruelly cut down.



I am a Brooklyn tree, as you have named your city;

A Brooklyn tree, scraggly and pruned;

Shading you barely with my sparse leaves in summer,

Branches break under the snow’s weight in winter

Harming your cars and residents accidentally…

But—it was your choice to place me where you did.



I can not likely run away.



Who are you, so different from others who take notice?

You are different…sigh…I feel…

Thank you for your time.

Beautiful work! I love poetry that puts things into a different perspective!

As I read your poem about a tree, I am reminded of the importance of not taking things and people for granted, trying to understand others, taking responsibility for what I do, and even the importance of being glad for the rare, extra special moments in life! Thank you for sharing your artistic words!