The Mesquite Tree and Me

The Mesquite Tree and Me

When I was just a mere lad, a lad of only three

I lived by a circle that had a mesquite tree

And in that tree was magic for one who is but three

From that tree I saw a black man the first I’d ever seen

I learned his name was Joe and he had a mule you see

The mule was used by Joe to plow the ground in a field close to that tree.

It was an amazing time for one who’s only three

I spent time with Joe underneath my magic tree.

One day while in my tree my mother came to me

Her eyes were red her face was wet and tears came readily.

She said her young brother Chester would come home no more.

She said the Germans had killed him in the big war overseas.

One day while in my tree someone said to me

The war is over yonder, and we have victory.

And now I’m much older a lad of four you see

And Joe’s shack has turned into a house, and Joe had to leave.

And now the field that had been plowed is not the place for me

For a tractor took the place of Joe, and left a hole in me.

The view from my tree is houses everywhere, but with the house came Tommy, Darleen, and me.

Darleen was pretty, the prettiest girl I’d ever seen and Tommy was just like me.

We won many battles in that Mesquite tree, the war with the Indians and many others you see.

But the biggest war came when others wanted in our tree.

Now as a young man, a man of six, I’m told to leave my tree.  I have to get some education or something like that you see.  At first it was such trauma, I missed that mesquite tree, and when I returned from school, that was where mother would find me.

Now I’m seven and the tree does not look so big, and yet my friends Jimmy and Richard are hanging out in that old Mesquite tree with me.   We still fight our battles, some seem real, but other things are beginning to replace that tree for me.

Bob Rice