{"id":140,"date":"2025-10-23T23:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/?page_id=140"},"modified":"2025-11-07T22:47:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:47:45","slug":"what-are-years","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/poetry\/what-are-years\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert McDonald<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not the tree cutter\u2019s very first<\/span><\/p>\n

tree, limb by limb by branch, the cutting just<\/span><\/p>\n

a workday task, until only the trunk is left,<\/span><\/p>\n

looking like a cemetery<\/span><\/p>\n

headstone<\/span><\/p>\n

for a tree.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In a network of ropes, in the cacophony of chainsaw<\/span><\/p>\n

duets, at the end of a year that anyone<\/span><\/p>\n

could claim has seen enough<\/span><\/p>\n

destruction,<\/span><\/p>\n

the tree\u2019s<\/span><\/p>\n

brought down,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I can feel the fall of the largest<\/span><\/p>\n

lengths of trunk in the soles of my feet.<\/span><\/p>\n

The woodpecker, I\u2019ve seen it for years, hopping<\/span><\/p>\n

and hammering,<\/span><\/p>\n

that patented<\/span><\/p>\n

woodpecker<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

move; it will need to find a new home, because something<\/span><\/p>\n

older than me has been hewn,<\/span><\/p>\n

sectioned,<\/span><\/p>\n

trucked away<\/span><\/p>\n

before noon.<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t want this open span<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

of sky. I didn\u2019t ask to be standing in my living<\/span><\/p>\n

room, smelling fresh<\/span><\/p>\n

sawdust<\/span><\/p>\n

even through<\/span><\/p>\n

the glass. I didn\u2019t ask<\/span><\/p>\n

for this abundance: winter<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

light, a wealth<\/span><\/p>\n

of spilled honey, this<\/span><\/p>\n

new glow<\/span><\/p>\n

across the old<\/span><\/p>\n

wooden<\/span><\/p>\n

floor.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nRobert McDonald This is not the tree cutter\u2019s very first tree, limb by limb by branch, the cutting just a…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “What Are Years”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"parent":322,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-140","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/140\/revisions\/205"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}