Postcard from Jasper Street

EIGHTEEN  MAPLE TREES

© Jane Piirto. All Rights Reserved.

I call the city manager

to ask who cut down

18 maple trees

on our street,

the oldest street in town

the one with the stone wall

she says, “What trees? 

No one has called to miss

18 maple trees

except you and you don’t

live here anymore.

You say they were cut down

the end of last summer?

The City of Ishpeming

only cut down 14 trees.

Only one was on Jasper Street.

They had to be cut by

The Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company.

They own all the land.”

I call the company, CCI.

“Who cut down the trees?”

“What trees?” the p.r. man says.

Don was in high school

2 years ahead of me.

Head of the Chamber of Commerce

Certainly he cares about

18 maple trees.                          

“It wasn’t C.C.I.

that I’m aware of.” 

I ask the neighbors

“When were the maples cut down?”

No one seems to remember.

Maybe last summer maybe not.

Neighbor Paulie says he heard

Arvo requested they be cut down.

With all the skiers coming up

to the new ski trail,

the branches fell on the street

after snowstorms. 

“it was dangerous.”

Why can Arvo request such a thing

and they would just do it?

“Don’t the neighbors

need to know?”

We can’t ask Arvo.

Arvo fell off his roof

cleaning ice

he died last year 

Paulie says he’ll ask

the city crew if they did it

I check the stumps

count the rings

stop at 90 

dense and not diseased

I ask Paulette

a neighbor who’s a teacher

in the health food co-op

with my mother

“They were just gone

one day at the end

of last summer.”

There have always been

changes in the woods

where The Company

mines iron in open pits

we hear heavy machinery

boom through the forests

blasts like earthquakes

echo in the sky

but we, blithe

pick blueberries

we go tobogganing

celebrate family fests

hunt and orienteer

ski crosscountry hills

we swim in fresh spring-fed lakes

we forget—forgive the rampage

of necessary commerce:

The Company

just behind Lake Ogden

a gaping mine in the earth

miles wide and very deep

the red earth yields low-grade iron

for pellets for steel

only seen by nonminers

from commuter planes

when the weather is good

now The Company has blocked off

Cliff’s Drive; all gashing is hidden

Ogden flows into Lake Sally

the town’s water supply

they changed the water supply

to Teal Lake and then to wells last year.

Sally and Ogden

drop in levels month by month

the mine is two miles

from our home.

The Company

owns the land.

I ask my mother

“Why didn’t you complain

about the missing trees?”

“I assumed

they had a reason,” she says.

“I feel

like a collaborator

with the nazis,” she says.