The Cracker Barrel: The red oak tree

The Cracker Barrel: The red oak tree

Scene of tree being felled. Growl of saw, fountain of wood chips, creak of trunk as it begins to tilt, then swish and muffled crash as it topples into the brush. Sudden hole in the sky. I stand looking up at the brilliant blue and then down at the fallen oak, and I am filled with a strange mixture of exhilaration and remorse. The tree is gone, and with it go a hundred other things. A squirrel’s home. The living place of lichens. A resting branch…