How Will This Go?

When was the last
Time you planted
Some living thing?
How recently?

How long ago?
Is it alive
Now, still alive,
Far as you know?

Presumably,
It was something
Small at the time,
But do you know?

How much would you
Guess it has grown?
There was a tree
Over a roof

You noticed just
A day or two
Ago—you used
To live there. You

Planted a seed
In the backyard
Five years ago.
Could that be it,

Now looming large
Over a moonlit
Roof that looks wrapped
In swaddling snow?

It is going
To take over
All the known world,
And you’re so pleased,

You can’t prevent
Your wide, thrilled smile.
What you planted,
Seed then seedling,

Comes for the world.
You can’t even
Read for thinking
How this might go.