this tree fell just before we came on the island. a fellow heard the crash and showed me a picture on his camera. a robin was awestruck, hopping all the way along the trunk to the roots, looking at us like what the fuck. these mighty winds uprooting trees, the same winds that would scour the planet of the invasive species, us. r. says they fall because they're sad because so many of their fellows have been felled by the power saw, and i believe it, trees are communal beings, unlike the land grabbers who view community, as nature, as human utility, as dollars not trees.

i knew this tree, and the evergreen around it's base like a lush bush around a heaven-reaching shaft, and now the evergreen is hurt, and sure bereft. when a tree falls we feel it, even if we don't understand the nature of community.