The Half Fallen Tree

from Northern Sketches by Gary Bunting

	/

Cassette + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Northern Sketches via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 1 day

$10 USD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$1 USD or more
Buy the Full Digital Album

lyrics

The Half Fallen Tree

I chopped a half fallen tree down in the yard today
Don’t get me wrong
It wasn’t a mighty redwood the width of a refrigerator
But it was hard work
It sure as hell didn’t want me to take up lumberjacking
Either as a living or a hobby
But it was the second tree that I’d cut down in my life
The first being at my parents’ house
They were away on holiday and the tree had fallen in a storm
I was younger then though, it was easier

When I finished and had piled the logs together
I mean, I say logs but
If you built a log cabin out of them
It might be okay for Barbie and Ken
For a weekend retreat
I got the idea that I’d carve something out of this wood
Just for a moment
I’d watched too many off grid TV shows
You know the kind
People building cabins and beaver trapping
Wrestling bears and purifying their own urine
That’s not the life for me

I’d miss supermarket checkout queues and fresh scones
Stroking random cats in the street, barbershops
Gridlock traffic, pretty girls, hair gel, book hunting, wi-fi
Saturday afternoon football, funerals
Doctor’s waiting rooms
The smell of a bakery at dusk
And all that jazz

No, the lumberjack life
It’s not for me

credits

from Northern Sketches, released October 22, 2021

license

about

Hello America Stereo Cassette

A new record label releasing audio recordings of writers' work. Poems backed by noise. Novels as audio books. Stories on cassettes. Curated by Adam Gnade. Currently accepting submissions.