Dedicated to my son, Andrew, who took his life on December 1, 1998.

The Felling of a Lovely Tree, a son, and the Sun

There you are in my back yard

Limbs, branches, and bark now scattered and shattered

Oh no, when we first met you were a beautiful tree

You were not perfect by any means

Seasons went by when blossoms failed to come

But you remained a beautiful tree

Song birds and the sun and so too the wind

Loved to sing and shine and whirl around you

You gave them pleasure and made them smile

But we didn’t know about the snow

How its weight made you bend in pain and sorrow

Your snow was so dark and cold

But you didn’t tell us about the snow

We could have brushed if off to ease the pain

Not this winter though

The heaviness of the snow brought you down

Snapped you to the ground to die

All that remains are your roots in the ground

And oh how those song birds will miss not having you around

MJL, Feb 1999

Saying goodbye once again to Lieutenant j. g.

Here I stand in the sweltering Summer corn soy fields that surround your body

Resting forever under the copper-scorched marker bearing your name, my

name

It has been so long since you went wrapped in cold blue steel into and around a

lonely Sycamore

Requiescat in pace, j. g.

But we had so little in common, politics and the universe of course

You recall I was here before to tell you that the life of your lovely

long-yellow-hared, grinning son-child-man who was disease-drained early

But j. g. , we still had so little in common

I am back again in this Summer’s heat with another story of the death’s

unnaturalness

My beautiful, burdened son, not so long ago, stole his life and mine and ours

Now we have something in common

Neither of us had time to say goodbye

And now we have something in common.

MJL March, 1999