From the public employee protecting trees

For Mr. Good of Northeast Columbus

Dear Mr. Good,

Of the 149 comments we received,

yours was the one that made me laugh aloud.

How could you have known that the “meddling parasitic bureaucrat”

to read your words truly will “wax poetic about tree policy”?

I know others are in your camp.

Trees seem superfluous 

when there is so much else to worry about, 

so much else to fix.

Though I get the sense that, like Ron Swanson,

you think the government should mind its own business.

But if we can’t come together to protect trees,

when they do so much for us (air! shade!)

we are derelict in our duty. 

That’s what I believe.

In the face of so much destruction our species has wrought,

the least we can do is care for trees–

their roots and branches, 

the wholeness of their bark.

I’m afraid your comment didn’t have its intended effect–

I’m not demoralized or contemplating resignation,

not fired or even sitting in a posh downtown office. 

No, sir, I’m in my cubicle laughing at your

immensely precise and caustic phrases 

that you must have labored over,

and I’m proud of our “bureaucratic handwringing over trees”

knowing this work I lead 

is as important as it gets.