If it weren’t for the sign,
I’d probably walk by the tree and not think twice.
in knee-deep water along the banks
of an undiked Lake Okeechobee
Or maybe I’d sit on the bench …
And luxuriate in its shade.
And even possibly take note of the old concrete wall.
the water line of the Caloosahatchee River
on the outside of the Lake’s perimeter levee
Still, I doubt it would naturally occur to me …
That the concrete wall was the old lock to the Lake Okeechobee before they built the modern one a mile or three upstream. Or that the tree once served as the sole navigational marker on the Lake.
And the stories this tree could tell if it could speak.
Fortunately there’s a sign.
