Upset over the destruction of trees during the widening of a local road, my friend requested I write a poem that expressed her distress.

Photo by Susan Popko

Tears for the Slaughtered

For decades they flourished,

Tall verdant characters

Verging the narrow course,

Only to be brutally hacked,

Martyrs quickly downed

As sacrificial lambs

To the pagan gods of progress,

The stout powers-that-be,

Craving wider paths

Of copious tar and asphalt.

© 2010 Poetry by Rose Marie Boyd