Men Who Love Trees

I saw a man cry once, years ago. (I rarely see men cry.) I saw my father cry in 2004. (He lost his son, my brother, to a car accident.) I saw my partner cry in 2021. (We lost our cat, to cancer.)

The man I saw crying, circa 1990, he lost something, too. He stood in his yard, next to a tree he loved, in a suburb, in Austin, Texas.

I watched the crying man, from across the street. We were neighbors. He usually spent the weekends in his garage. Tinkering, I suppose. The garage door, always open. A small television set, always on. He watched sports. He trained his dog to…