This is a true story about my granddaughter and a tree in our yard.

 

       TONI’S ROOM

 

Toni lost an old friend today

            But you may not think so

For it was just a willow tree

            With branches hanging low

The many limbs, so thick with leaves

            Were long and touched the grass

They formed a great big nature room

            With their huge shapely mass

To her, it was a special tree

            It was her hideaway

A castle, when she willed it so

            Her playhouse, every day

It had what looked like eyes to her

            Where branches were removed

It even wore a smiling mouth

            A boy’s sharp knife had grooved

So she talked to the willow tree

            As if it were a friend

She’s just a lonesome little girl

            And she loves to pretend

Whatever her moods might have been

            The tree room shared them all

For many hours were spent within

            From early spring to fall

And even in the winter months

            Into the room she’d go

Then it became her big igloo

            With branches wearing snow

Today there was an awful storm

            And lightning killed the tree

She wept in sadness at its death

            And then she said to me

I’m going to plant a tree someday

            And when it’s fully grown

There’ll be a nice big nature room

            For a child of my own

And I will share some memories

            In the shade of that tree

To tell her of the room I had

            And what it meant

 

 

3/17/89             Phyllis DeWitt VanVleck

 

Judge’s Special Mention … PAW (in Pa) 1991