CARPE DIEM

               The laurel oaks are ageing all around
               Our neighborhood, and several in our yard
               Are shedding limbs and showing they’re unsound,
               But yet the thought of losing them is hard.

               On top of that, it costs a cool six thou
               Dismembering and dismantling only one,
               The yard-wide trunk and every arching bough,
               Then hauling off what weighs over a ton.

               As if to urge us further comes the news
               The season’s drawing near for hurricanes,
               Another way for nature to abuse
               All creatures great and small with lingering pains.

                    The squirrels, though, cavorting round the trunk
                    Enjoy the day and say my fears are bunk.

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