Leah Stenson’s most recent poem to appear here was “Spa” (October 2019).

When the Bough Breaks
By Leah Stenson

The neighbor’s bull trespassed,
used our Japanese maple as a scratching post
and broke some branches, so we dug up the damaged tree,
and planted another, more perfectly shaped.

You’re out in the yard in the middle of a snowstorm
fashioning crutches out of wood and twine
propping up some of the maple’s branches,
determined to protect it from destruction.

Please don’t be over-protective when the time comes.
Let me be that red maple adorned with snow,
let me bend and break with the weight of it,
go with the natural flow of things.