Trees

Sue has lived in her house for forty-five years. Until this year, there was a patch of forest across the street from her house, and it provided home and habitat for many birds and wild things. A few months ago, someone bought the little forest and cut down every living thing on it: trees, brush, grass, weeds, and all that lived among them. The topsoil was removed, gravel was laid, and then concrete. Now a three-story duplex is being constructed on the spot, and more wood has been brought in than was growing there when it was a little forest. Sue has been watching: at first with dismay, then with some annoyance, and now with admiration for the construction crew: their cooperative labor is like a dance. They work twelve-hour days, and they don't waste a movement. Change happens. This is some of the new wood for use in building the structure.