FULL NOVELXO Chapter Evergreen An Ode to my Father
To find them all
In one place
My father sought
His evergreen
Forest
The Christmas tree
Lived in a pot
Still it stands
Silent soldier
Siska Spruce
Nineteen seventy
The Balsam Fir
Outside our door
Between dwellings
Wild strawberries
At its feet
My father found
In a ditch
Now it towers
His memory sings
The line of trees
Behind our house
Spruce of every color
White, Blue, Black
Engelman
He loved them all
They stand so tall
From tiny sprigs
He found one fall
The golden Larch
The last addition
Buds in spring
Spider limbs each winter
The needled tree
Not evergreen
And then the pines
Lodgepole and Jack
And the trio
Of Douglas fir
Which by name
Denies its roots
Which made him laugh
Until his death
He loved them all
Pale green coats
In the spring
Shedding snow
Blizzard shield
In forests grand
His ghost still stands
Evergreen