"An Oak Shaped Hole in the Sky" by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

A tribute to the great oak that once guarded the trailhead across the street from my house. A giant that was felled during the storms last year as the mud at the roots was loosened so that the whole tree pulled free and tumbled down into the gully. I’m sad to no longer look out my front window and see those grand arcing branches obscuring the lower ravine. There is a oak-shaped empty gap in the sky now where that tree used to be, and the voices of walkers along the lower trail echo sharp and too loud up to where I can sit on the stump. But it is springtime now, and the volunteers have come over many weekends and planted new shrubs and saplings all around, carefully marked with red ribbons so as to not get trampled by visitors to the trail.