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    painting of colorful trees

    The Stump

    (Athens, Greece)

    By A. E. Stallings

    July 1, 2025
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    The mayor, I think, had it trucked in—this stump
    Of an ancient olive tree. The muscled torso
    In torsion like some wrestling Greek hero’s
    Statue found without its limbs—a lump
    Of twisted xylem. For years I thought it dead—
    Why had they planted a dead stump? The daisies
    Sprang up around it in sunny waves. Taxis
    Flowed on either side of the traffic island
    It was marooned on like a shipwrecked mast.
    And then, last spring, a crown of pale green shoots
    Came arrowing out of it—I was flabbergasted,
    It seemed a miracle! Now it’s going gangbusters,
    Branches in all directions. It’s like the bed
    The hero came home to, that he’d built himself,
    And his wife had wept for years on like a life raft,
    And the wonder wasn’t that it was not moved—
    (An inside joke)—but that it was still alive.

     

    painting of colorful trees

    Georges Braque, Olive Trees, oil on canvas, 1907. Artwork by Georges Braque on WikiArt (public domain).

    Contributed By A. E. Stallings A. E. Stallings

    A. E. (Alicia) Stallings lives in Athens, Greece, with her husband, and is serving as the Oxford Professor of Poetry.

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