Dear Editor,
I’m writing in response to the poem titled “Two Trees” by Seymour Joseph. Please allow me to submit this poem about a third tree. The Jena Tree and many others have been martyred to conceal the hypocrisy that persists in society. This deforestation must end.
Yours truly,
Edgar Pitts
U.S. Penitentiary
Florence CO
The Tree
The old tree in the prison yard blocked the view of the guard in the gun tower.
The prisoner saw it and took advantage of the hour.
He jumped up and fell back down,
He got up and tried again, but the wall just kept getting taller so he couldn’t get over.
A weak prisoner saw his attempt and happily went to inform the guards.
The guards came like a stampede of wildebeests and subdued the freedom fighter
And took him away.
What a shame.
Now he’s isolated to a cell behind many steel doors and bars in the segregation housing unit, better know as the hole.
This is a cold world.
In the meantime the guards needed someone to blame for the prisoner’s attempted escape,
But the tree was the only one standing around.
So they did their estimation and with no hesitation came to their diabolical conclusion.
“The tree must do.”
The tree an enemy to captivity and a friend to liberty must go.
The tree that gave calming shade to the prisoners must go.
The tree that was the house to varieties of pretty birds must go,
The only diversity without violence that the prisoners know.
The birds can’t serenade the prisoners anymore.
The tree must go.
The birds must relocate, what a terrible state,
But the tree of life must go on.
So limb by limb they cut the tree down.
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