Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America
by Matthew Olzmann
Tell me what it’s like to live without
curiosity, without awe. To sail
on clear water, rolling your eyes
at the end of a bad year. Trees begin
to outnumber houses. Rain turns to snow
as fields hang like paintings.
At lunchtime I bought a huge orange—
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—
