el aliso

el aliso

flaunting age with grace,

clinging to the spine of civilization,

sycamores thrived,

towering trees in the land of few,

witnessing centuries of history,

on the banks of the arroyo seco.

romance under the shade,

of the greatest alder,

sixty feet tall with mottled low branches,

stretching 200 feet long twisted low to cradle,

cooling wines and lovers,

accepting prayers under bough.

imagine the tales of the ancient sycamore tree,

protecting the mission way after deluge,

witnessing the mexican american war,

21 men hanged from the sawtell alder,

only to meet its end in arson,

caught in a hot santa ana wind fire.

the great marker, the boundary setter,

beginning at the sycamore tree,

standing at the east road leading to rancho san pedro,

j. wesley gaines remembers it the only one in sight,

the eagle tree on the treeless landscape,

the raptors landmark on his land grant.

the indigenous sycamore became totemic,

the greatest sprang on the los angeles river,

before the americas were discovered,

under its shade native tongva people danced,

conferring beneath the towering tree,

el aliso, el aliso under freeway forever silent sycamore.