'My' Hemlock .........[nature; Tree; Personal] Poem by Bri Edwards

A stately hemlock.... my western window does guard.
Its afternoon shadow marks the edge of the yard.
Its flat needles are green.
Its cones have a brown sheen.
The colors are the two favorites of this aging bard.

Its branches block much of the hot sun as a rule,
helping in summer to keep my small apartment cool.
By its natural way
less electric I pay;
the big hemlock's my own air-conditioning tool.

House sparrow, gray squirrel, and jay....in it do perch.
There too, some birds may conduct an insect search.
The tree keeps its needles all year
and helps bring to me needed cheer,
(more than would maple, elm, walnut, or birch) .

AND

Though hemlock poison has been known to make some people dead,
the thought does NOT make ME feel any moment of dread.
(Trees were friends in my past,
and that same feeling shall always last.)

(Nov.2006)