Like a punch drunk boxer flailing
at air, Ralph's weathered limbs stir
to action when he senses challenge.
Massive spine notwithstanding,
each fresh battering takes its toll:
supple now supplanted by brittle.
Towering above his green cousins
he recalls times when he too
absorbed tempests with sway,
rejutting his proud, malleable jaw
to the gully's seasonal pummellings.
Beyond sighing, Ralph has had it.
Overlooking Lakeside Drive,
old enough to remember
when phantom tarn might
have swollen into being,
soon all his boughs will sink
into the lakeless earth.
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