Ginkgo

Ginkgo

Sarah Kalthoff Sims

“...and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands.” — Isaiah 55:12

They ripped out
ginkgo trees today—

the young ones
by the old white church.

Yellow-bellied bulldozer
held one suspended

in its jaws,
her fan leaves

trembling like hymnal pages
she hung

above strewn soil
above cracked concrete.

The congregation watched
as she, narrow and frail,

flailed against the backdrop
of pillars, thick and glossy.

With a great squeal of unhinging metal
she dropped

and what a chorus she made.

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Sarah Kalthoff Sims
Poet & Student

Sarah has been published in Opus Literary & Arts Magazine and Collision Magazine. She is a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry candidate at Seattle Pacific University. You can read more of her work at thepleasanttrees.wordpress.com.

Photography by Bruce Tang