From a distance
it looked like ordinary
wood, a snuff-colored twig
one might rake
for burning. Surfaced
by the bulldozer
from a sarcophagus of clay, it
could have been the brittle
finger-bone of a prophet, or a
phalange of an extinct ape
from another age. Black
spruce, the geologist says,
buried by the last glacier
budging across Illinois.
The branch lies cool
against the palm. You count
the rings in cross-section:
fourteen. One for each
millennia the tree was a secret
no one knew to tell. You
feel a rush of centuries
receding and for a moment
stand among its antecedents.
The conifer reaches for thin
blue sky, breathes
air full of promise.
In the silhouette
you see a tree waiting
for December.
Image by liiuyyu via Creative Commons. Image cropped.
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
