Matt Jablonski

3 Assessments, Same Situation

The Situation

On the oak nearest our house

four monster limbs hang dead

over the neighbor’s yard and garage.

They are older than all of us.

One

In my mind it’s his tree, his issue, but

I’d really like to see what a limb that size

could do to the roof of a garage,

in a purely scientific, non-malicious sense.

Two

The neighbor brought some friends to take a look.

They looked awhile, and mumbled a bit before deciding,

That one’d like t’take yer g’rage down. Then they left

my neighbor, and his defiant branches, alone.

Three

My 2 year old son looked up there the other day,

pointed to the limbs, and said, Looks like spider webs

up there against the sky, branches like spider webs.

Then he examined the ants as they loved our peony.