Historic Tree – Do Not Climb

the sign said, not
… enjoy its shade by the busy road
… touch the barky edge of its life and seasons
… feel the gnarly strength of its limbs
… remember the stories of its wooden rings
… take a dropped leaf for your box of treasures.

The sign was a prohibition
by caretakers preserving
its history, quarantining
its life. Fathers and mothers
of the caretakers imagined
its limbs the prow
of a ship, a trapeze
for swinging, a lap
for reading, but
they now reside in life-care
communities where
no one comes to climb.