As evergreen corpses riddle the streets
I think of the sturdy model
standing tall in my mother’s home,
collected, resolved, prepared to do our bidding
throughout this season – and longer.

Sick of the cycle of torture of trees,
we opted to purchase one thing once
rather than killing consistently,
year after year
after year after year.

So we bought a six foot plastic tree
and, thinking better of it,
bought a seven and a half foot plastic tree
that suited our needs in a superior way.
No more would we pick perennials to plaster in the apartment.
Now, there was something more permanent
something environmentally sound.

It cost about as much as one year’s natural,
so it paid for itself immediately.
So what if its carbon footprint
is off the charts?
How was I to know
the petrochemicals involved in its production?
What do you expect me to be:
aware?

This is the best I could do
with what I had
at the moment of truth.
It is better than I did before.
Or maybe it’s worse
but I don’t have to put the tree away before it sheds.
That’s something.