Quiet Giant

Silvery flashes among the deeper greens,
The gentle breeze is stirring
The gray-green leaves that flutter
To reveal their underside.

Mottled bark where flakes have fallen

Mark the giant Sycamore

Standing tall among the lesser trees

Which seek to crowd beneath its branches.

Long-lived ancestors saw the founders,

Furnished them homes,

Warmed the hearths,

Provided the furnishings of civilization.

Treasured for shade they line the streets

Of many small towns and villages

Where domestication contains them

And children play among their branches.

American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)