To a Toothpick

You useful toothpick, but a sliver from
A tree, I muse where you were overcome.
Did you see light before my ninety years
And grow and learn of nature's joys and tears?
Did ever bears climb up your shaggy trunk
Or eagles build within your top to bunk?
Did you one time adorn some foreign land
And drop your seeds to grow another stand?
Did sickish thuds of woodsman's ax cause death,
Or chain saw's savage slicing still your breath?
Did you then float along a river wide
To meet a mill with rip saw there inside?
Or did some giant truck give you a ride
With many others stacked all side by side?
Your secret background matters not of course;
Today will be your glory day perforce.
Because you've made that sacrifice you're still
Around to serve and my need now fulfill. 




Florence Vandenburg

Coldwater, MI 

Copyright ©2001 Florence Vandenburg