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Haiku for the Holidaze
I’ve just finished posting a haiku about the colorful autumn leaves, and then December hits. Everything starts to green up. No, not the now-dormant trees and grasses, but the holiday decorations popping up everywhere.
There is holly, in both boughs and wreathes, mistletoe, green (and red) ribbon and bunting, wrapping paper, candies and cookies sprinkled with verdant-colored sugar, and, of course, Christmas trees.
Yes, Christmas trees are everywhere now, delivered to corner lots waiting to be adopted by a family, quite often one with small children. I’m not sure all of them came of their own free will, however. I’ve seen many lying on the ground bound and gagged, not even given so much as a drink of water, only to be propped up on display once one of their brethren is sold into servitude.
If they only knew that by February most will be little more than a pile of mulch adorned by tiny bits of wayward tinsel embedded within their remains. Just in time for early spring gardening!
One could always get an artificial tree, of course. Nothing like the aroma of volatile compounds wafting into your sinuses! And it’s not as if the world needs more plastic.
So, I guess it is what it is. Perhaps not very efficient or productive, but the trees do bring a bit of happiness to the world, even if it is fleeting. And, though I sometimes feel a tad melancholy about the tree’s short lives, I have to…
