DietmarNov2017

The Stories of Two Trees

Only two trees in my garden

Because it is small, and not a park,

No swimming pool either

Some bushes, some flowers at the borders

A summer lilac, roses, and hydrangea

The two trees though are special

Magnificent Maple trees both

Different Maple trees

The noise of their leaves in the wind

Whisper past and future stories

The Palmate Maple

Planted for my daughter’s birth

As it is a custom when a child is born

You plant a tree, growing then

Like the child

Who gets taller year by year,

Lifting and spreading her arms

Like the branches of the tree

To reach the sky

With her feet firm on the ground

Like the roots firmly anchored

To defy wind and weathers

The Big Leaf Maple

Once grew as a wild shoot

In the one-square-metre

Backyard garden of a parking lot

Nursed and cultivated

By my mother-in-law

As she finally accepted me

In her family

I planted it in my garden

When she died

Now I am thinking of her

When reading in its shade

In summer

Now I am thinking of her

In autumn

When collecting its fallen leaves

Think of stories of the future

Think of stories of the past

DIETMAR, November, 2017