Sonnet #15

They say an olive tree can live a thousand years -

The pears, down here, if fireblight hardy, live

at least a thousand, too. There's oaks that shrive

for centuries, and mesquites with roots like spears

into the earth. The trees we plant in yards

last longer than the houses underneath

When the buildings go, the roses wreathe

The hedges grow into each other's disregard

The roots push hard, the concrete fails

The wasps and sparrows linger in the rafters

It was always their house. Always smaller

creatures - insects, snakes - their tiny squalors, 

We just made a mess before and after

The Anthropologists seek pioneers' ruins

From the sky, searching pear trees in horizons