Settler

One of the carolinas trees that give this part of my one street its Occitan name, avenguda de las Carolinas. Like me, it's an incomer to the village that has put down roots and seems happy here. The variety Populus angulata, Carolinian Poplar, now called Populus deltoides, is native to the US and these two remaining trees in the street were probably seen as a sign of prestige by those who planted them. The leaves have fallen now but the trunk with its twisted markings on the bark is still lovely.

Edit: a draft poem -

Settler

incomer
from another land
settled in light
that powders
wood and paint,
wears and fades
and nurtures, deep roots
beneath the street, fallen
leaves feeling a way,
lodging their dryness
in the crevices
of a screened door.
© TW

This project is changing my writing habits of decades, inspiring me to work much more quickly, to share much sooner. Even when I was a member of a writers' group in Wales I didn't show anyone - even LoJ who is my first reader - my work on the day I began a poem. I think it's doing me some good!