the news is so terribly terrible
I won't write about it instead
I've found my daughter's high
school biology "leaf collection"
here are leaves asked for: paw paw,
witch hazel, chinquapin oak, bladder
nut, burr oak, lombardy poplar, osage
orange, etc. etc. it took all fall, was
a bad assignment for the leaves,
supposed to be local, were often not:
kids needed a parent even a car also
a tree book to fulfill their task –
for instance the kentucky coffee tree
was only found in lincoln memorial
garden we called the city arborist to
see where one might be, other parents
were also confounded, my kid got
an A on her collection but it took
community effort some lessons are
learned not necessarily intended ones
2022 Jacqueline Jackson
