Poems by Dennis Janke

There is a tree in a garden
I am sworn to protect.

Once as you walked by
you dropped a seed
and I saw where it fell
and I broke ground around it
planting it out of season.

I kept the earth stirred
as the leaves were blowing
towards winter.

The wound still fresh,
I built a wall around it to shield it
so that it would endure
long after you and I are gone.

Now it is a tree
and we are no more
and still
I watch it grow.