The Ephemeral of Ontario Place (or ‘I once knew a tree.’)

I once knew a tree. I’m not acquainted with the species, nor can I tell you much on the ‘how’ for when it was planted. I can tell you from basic research that it might have been around fifty years old or so (not when I met her - We were a little younger) I know from a tiny bit of investigation in the ‘now’ that the study of trees is named Dendrology, the Greek providing us with one more measured piece of beauty in our language. Dendrology.

I had met her in a cafe that no longer exists in this city, Ephemeral being another word the Greek gifted to us, tied to Ephemeros meaning ‘lasting a day.’ The wonder of the last four letters of the word being ‘Eros.’ Ephemeris in Latin tied to the Greek ephemeros, Brittanica telling us of it being tied to a ‘table giving us the positions of one or more celestial bodies, often published with supplementary information. Ephemerides were constructed as early as the 4th century BC and are still essential today to the astronomer and navigator.’

an ecosystem itself of words, a map & a chart that led me to say, ‘I love you.’

I lost her to cancer, very young into our relationship, but we burned heavy & hard. The ill did not stop me from falling in love & I stayed for when things got really hard until the end. Imagine leaving, I could never.

I don’t want to speak on regrets but to a lesser, almost meaningless ‘what man would I have been’ there’s a contrast to the far more meaningful ‘what kind of beauty would she have built in this world, with or without me, if she were still here?’

Ephemeral. A blink of an eye.

So when the province of Ontario, under the cover of darkness, obliterated the mature trees at Ontario Place without thought to another ecosystem, more based in the traditional meaning of the word, it took one particular tree – a tree I once knew. A tree that had four initials carved into it where the adults decided to go back a few years & be teenagers & carved their four first letters of their name into it – mine, and yours, surrounded by a heart, polished with a kiss.

And then, as you examine the wreckage, without & within, you come to the conclusion that some eulogies are too hard to finish, but a farewell, with a further thought:

We leave so few things behind for our children to find, in Toronto, including the tree I once knew, no longer here, no shelter or shade.