By Lynn Hamilton Rutherford
Date: 10 October 1999

"The Tree by the Road"

A tree stands by a dusty road,
For years its leaves have fallen brown,
To Georgia red clay soil below,
And rested there upon the ground.

And birds have lit upon this tree,
And bees have found its sap so sweet,
And lovers sat beneath its shade,
To talk of Frost and Plath and Keats. 

It was in spring when the mark was made,
A promise carved in wood and life,
Of two who pledged their love that day,
With the silvery blade of a pocketknife.

Through time and weather tall she swayed,
Its limbs outstretched to heavens food,
Of sun and water, night and day,
With season's change, its life renewed. 

The promise sealed within it soul,
The tree would grow a human heart,
For there inside the mark of promise,
Two souls connected - two lives apart.