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[Wilyem Clark]

Dear salmon-flowered buckeye:
I admire your perseverance,
Waiting out the seething cold,
Withering though the malignant heat,
Standing resolute in every season,
Patiently counting off the years,
Becoming in your modest dress,
Never wildly ambitious, ostentatious, or imposing,
Human-scaled, relatable, reliable,
Symmetrical and effortlessly elegant;
You will outlast us all, I know.