catapult magazine

Lament for trees demolished by an oil pipeline

by Lynda Hollinger-Janzen

Where are the trees that sing for joy?
Gone…
Gone are the leaves, rustling testimony to God’s Spirit passing in the cool of the evening. 

Where are the branches that clap their hands in time to the music of the hills?
Gone…
Gone are the finches, thrushes, cardinals and robins along with their grace notes and melodies.

Where are the forest harmonies?
Gone…
Gone are deep oak voices, leaving parched grass to whisper treble memories of the majestic chorus.

The locust plague of greed diminishes God’s symphony,
Devouring life-giving green,
Chewing up anchoring roots,
And obliterating history with mechanical roars and grinding gears.

The Torah says, “When you lay siege to a city, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit.
Do not cut them down.
Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them?”

We reap the harvest of our need for speed.  
We eat, not fruit, but the bitter meal of our obsession with ease.
We inherit erosion, pollution and discontent.
How lonely this scar running through our beloved land.

Kyrie eleison.