IF NOT FOR A TREE,
WHERE WOULD THIS WORLD BE?
No apple, no cherry, no peach and no plum!
No lemons or limes or oranges, by gum!
No kumquat, no guava and no coconut–
No olives, no coffee, no cocoa, no nuts!
No olive oil and no maple syrup!
No none of these things from
which we can cheer up!
No toothpicks, no paper, no pencils, no books!
No toilet paper! (Don’t give me those looks!)
There’ be no hardwood floors and no picket fences,
Alas, there would be no stadium benches!
No cardboard, no crayons, no charcoal for grilling!
No deck you can sit on, a summer night, chilling!
No camphor, no waxes, milk cartons or flooring!
without all of this it would be kind of boring!
There’d be no canoes and no tele phone books!
No daily newspaper or wooden coat hooks!
No railroad ties, no stepladders or swings,
We surely would be lost without all of these things!
No beds an no stairways, no barrels and no doors!
No cupboard where all of our groceries are stored!
No church pews, no desks and no gardens stakes!
There’d be no wooden wharves out on oceans and lakes!
No parchment paper and no wooden spoons!
No pianos, guitars or songbooks for tunes!
No bowling alleys and no candy wrappers,
No toilet seats to put on the crappers!
No coffee filters or rulers or oars,
No disposable diapers and no fun game boards
No chest of drawers and no kiddy toy chest
No ping pong table or futons for rest–
No atlas, no maps and no dictionaries,
No secret garden to house all our fairies!
No birthday cards and no picture frames,
No wooden puzzles or Monopoly board games
From the trees we get oxygen
so we can breathe,
And without air,
we surely would grieve,
but the thing I’d miss most is the shade from my trees,
And the rustle of leaves, when there’s a breeze….
Sandra Lee Smith
Originally posted July 14, 2010
Updated September 7, 2018
