99poems/chinaIII

Overnight
the chinaberry
sprouted leaves,
a rich dark green
that defied their geography.
They did not gradually
fill in –
they seemed to come
at once,
a sort of chinaberry trait
to do things in great
bursts,
as is my tendency.
A moody tree,
that’s easy to ignore,
who sends off shoots
faster than any
tree I’ve ever known.
It had a child
a few feet away,
a decent little tree
but over shadowed
by the mother,
who canopied
our whole yard
in shade that
second summer,
just when I got
the sun-loving
plants put out.

5/26/99