Requiem of the Gingko
Karen Buckingham
Requiem of the Ginkgo
by Sarah Yost
the ginkgo tree: living stem
pushing up through the hole
in our weather-worn deck,
thickening with each year’s layer
as the harvested lumber desiccates to rot;
a glorious gift from the previous
owners: faceless benevolent gods
who granted us that small sip of beauty.
one day each fall we circle its trunk,
bathed in the gold flecks of a thousand
fluttering geisha fans, as the tree
unfetters its riches upon our
impoverished open palms, reaching
up, up, trying to grasp the essence
of that beautiful, ritual death.
