Poem A Day Challenge April 4, 2019

Today's poem is inspired by the world outside our window and by a prompt, somewhere that I can not find to credit, to capture a sense of time, and another prompt to write about sadness.

Akebono Prunus X Yedoensis

from my recliner, 
i gaze in wonder out the window

at the ornamental cherry tree

an efflorescing spectacle

in early spring

a raccoon regularly

wrecks havoc 

trying to steal eggs

from a nest high in it's branches

it’s a standoff until the raccoon gives up

lumbering its way down the trunk

seemingly unperturbed

by the indignant cacophony of crows

at the height of blossoming

the air is fragrant

with such sweet perfume

i weep 
that I have no words to describe
that sacred offering

her girth’s expansive

thick arching branches lift upwards

begging for a treehouse

it's the ideal climbing tree

if only I were young

for nearly a century

our tree and it's kin have

annually adorned our street

in resplendent glory

camera clad tourists and
visitors outfitted in finery
congregate to capture 
and bask in the spectacle

they don’t see it

but our tree’s days are numbered

the man at city hall says 

it's just climate change

the dry summers

weakening our tree's immune system

two of her sisters were cut down last year

two others have already been replaced 

with star magnolias

the branches

of the remaining trees

increasingly barren

with each rotation of the seasons

melancholy, we locals wonder
which one will be next?

but for now, from my recliner,  
i gaze in wonder out the window

at the ornamental cherry tree

an efflorescing spectacle