Decoration Enough

red is the color of cardinals
obviously

the underside of bittersweet
in the last days of fall

red is American holly
if the jays have been temperate,

winterberry and spicebush,
the staghorn sumac

it’s the pointed leaf of a maple
red maple, aptly named

and the flash in the splash
of the painted turtle diving

red is the tap tap tap
of the woodpeckers, there

and the robins who
may have stayed too long

red is burning bush
invading the woods,

it’s native wintergreen
and partridge berry

red is abundance
and wild, decoration enough

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS IN NATURE PRESERVES

Think about the following before decorating a public tree:

While plastic ornaments are cheap and easy to obtain, they produce their own set of issues when left outside. Any ornaments that fall off the tree can easily end up in a waterbody and will never degrade in any environmentally friendly manner. The sun will make them brittle, and they can break apart into smaller and smaller pieces. Animals can eat the plastic and even pass it along to their offspring. This can be fatal for them both.
Ornaments made of glass or other breakable materials can shatter and find their way into the landscape. Again, this presents issues for wildlife. It also makes cleanup efforts more difficult and dangerous. No one wants to step on or pick up pieces of thin, broken glass.
All the ornaments, tinsel, garland, and tree skirts you use can quickly end up on the ground where they’re no longer fun and sparkly holiday ornaments. Now they’re in the watershed where they can cause greater problems for our water system. It’s best to leave these on your tree at home.
If it’s not cleaned up promptly, what was once a whimsical holiday embellishment is now a garish eyesore in a matter of a few weeks. If you’ve ever walked past one of these neglected scenes after the holidays, you know how they look. Shiny tinsel is now faded by the sun and left half draped on the ground. The ornaments have mostly fallen off, leaving one or two sad remnants clinging to the tree. It’s an embarrassing scene, one that belies the natural beauty of the area.

If you like this poem, you’ll love the poems in my new book…