DO IT WITH ROPES AND A SADDLE

DO IT WITH ROPES
AND A SADDLE

Romance . . . It’s in the air.
Are you of a mind
    and body
to seek it there?

Saddle and rope it

for an old fashioned thrill
-- hands on
-- low tech flair.

Here’s what I mean.

Too much tree?
Sling a hard hat musketeer
through the breeze
to sculpt your backyard treetop tapestry.

He’ll ladder up the locust,
drape ropes down,
loop one end up and around,
then,
saddle-cinched at the waist,
winch up, swing free
and swashbuckle
through your tree

    --  boots in search
    of the perfect perch.

Target in view,
stretch for the angle . . .

    bra-a-a-p

notch from below
and cut from above.

The ground guy guides it
down and around the neighbor’s cedars
to the truck through a chipper.


Meanwhile, the tree guy,
with chain saw buck-trapped to his saddle,

    a rapier dropped and lurching free,

thrusts with a hand saw
and parries with a pruning pole

out toward the periphery

sending it all
    with dead wood
        down.

At the end of the day
romancing . .  . leaves . . .

    a place for the light to play,
        a balanced tree
            and intact canopy.

(epi) log:
.
Feeders restored,
harassed  cardinals
cease their sass
to explore
their new spartan furnishings.

A squirrel ponders
summer’s new trimmed out skyway
and new strategy.

For the trees on the street
they used a bucket truck.

DRK
6/13/11
4/15/10