verdancy and its contingent benefits

                 GREEN                                  

               

Some days I walk down the street
where we lived and the fat man
who stole  tomatoes
sits under the same old sycamore
tapping out his angry rhythms
on the knotted roots.  And though
the children are no longer ours,
the oaks are no less generous
to the sidewalks with their shade.
Overhead, sweet air still arrives
through many simple branches—
some reaching skyward for joy,
others downcast for a reason.
We were like good trees
the years we lived on this street.
We were so green.  Fresh as leaves.
And the days whispered through us.

                            Charles Douthat...

i realized that the poem The Hold had been published a few years ago

as i re read it i realized i'd known that poem....

so this is a replacement Charles Douthat poem

.....