What to Do About Trees

What to do about trees, for she had room: Have an orchard. But isn't that thinking About twenty years ahead? So she went

To the tool room for her spade in November; Took that and four apple saplings down Onto the flat by the road, and began. Years she

Did this, working up and around the rise Of better ground. Pears, cherries, quince Abounded, but the plums got blight, and had to

Be started over. She was too old to harvest Or even get shade from nut trees, they're so slow; Uncoupling crop from objective, she anyway set

Them out, along with the rest. Last, she Thought of mulberries. The hens could have Really used those. Oh, well. She ordered,

Even this late in life, and planted once more, Even as those old hens looked on amazed: Something to offer folks not yet alive.