Trees And Fruits Poem by Gerry Legister

Outdoor lovers under the trees
Try to become a plant person
plants are trees with subtle differences
we'd be crazy not to pay attention.

At first, the trees all look very similar
Yet, once you start to see them
with each species we encounter.
We can pick out a fresh scent.

Trees and fruits are to our ancestors
building blocks for self-reliance growing,
those same trees some ripe berries
and the Ash for an invasive burrowing.

The emerald ash borer beetle is wiping out
Archery bows in majestic forests
of wooden bowls, sycamore is a diverse sweet
leaving patches of green and peel flakes.

Berries can be eaten raw, cooked, or dried
the worth of vitamin or hallucination
beech has the light of the age to hide
It is very smooth texture stands out in demand

Stripped stark will break into splinters
great candidate for firewood and kindling.
In winter, dead leaves hang on the trees
providing dry paper for food and drinking.

But prickly husk falls around early dusk
The maple trapped to harvest its sap
Boil into syrup and leave out the oily nuts

The cedar foliage is scaly and branching
Delightful evergreen trees and shrubs
Christmas tree grows low and spreading
But juniper has scales like sharp needles.

The bark can be elastic from branches
And used to make cordage material
Prickly twigs and clusters of fragrant flowers
Fields of black locusts look phenomenal.

The tropical pawpaw is soft and fibrous
fruits with a hint of banana and mango
almost mushy, but slender-toothed edges
leaves you with medical weeping willow.