Bestowing Recognition

 

Though no one could confuse it for a conifer

the outlier feral apple tree lived its long life in a

forest among spruce, fir and pine, oak, maples

beech and hawthorns, producing hard little

apples favoured by birds and small furry

forest animals -- and the occasional human

intruder. A seed carried by the wind, dropped

by a bird sprouts and the apple tree finds itself

a forest denizen unlike any others. If there is

awareness among trees perhaps it felt shunned

alternatively embraced by others unlike itself.

It is old now, gnarled and battered by time and

the elements though it still produces fruit and may

survive another winter. It has been awarded a

special recognition as Christmas approaches, not

to be cut down like a fir or spruce and hauled to

someone's home, but to stand venerable and

proud, dressed this year of 2020 for the occasion.