another way trees

another way trees

make leaves, pulp into paper

bound into books --

pages turned into compost

converted by trees into leaves

On the highway bridge over Pilgrim Creek, I keep passing what looks like the remains of a book sitting on top of the concrete barrier. Who would put a book out on a bridge, left to weather in the weather? Curious, I walk down from the mailbox to have a look. It's a service manual, open to page 7-42, Long Trip Highway Scheduled Maintenance. I pick it up. The worn, mildewed pages are stiff. The cover is gone, but near the front I find that it's for a 2001 Chevrolet, some sort of SUV. How did it get there?

Viewed on edge, the rippled, deckled pages, folding back on themselves, make a lovely still life. Some day a hard wind will sweep the book into the creek below, or onto the pavement. Either way, it will slowly decompose into compost, nourishing more trees to replace the ones that gave up their lives to make the paper for this book.