Jeffrey

Everything is beautiful in the summer
Except a Jeffrey Pine.
Unfettered and shaggy,
He reaches towards the sky.
Trying to be light and frivolous
But failing.
Only the squirrels and bluejays
Manage to play and mock
The Pine standing stoic.

When the snow comes
The pine is triumphant.
Plastered with snow,
The boughs pull down,
Branches winched in
Like an umbrella.

The Jeffrey is beautiful in the winter,
At his most glorious assaulted
By snow and wind.
Here he is not stoic
But vigilant and brave.
Beneath the snow, the Jeffrey waits
For summer to reach
His shaggy branches upwards.
The same tree, but so different.
Turned inside out. Always
waiting for the next season to take
An opposite form.