‘Song of the Yew, at University of Georgia, Athens,’ and Other Poetry by Alec Ream

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Song of the Yew, at the University of Georgia, Athens

a sprig of General Oglethorpe’s ancestral yew was transported and planted aside the University of Georgia Arch on College Square, in Athens

Evergreen, with rusty hue,
Needles clean, with rain and dew,
Oglethorpe transported me
From Britain west across the sea.

His home and land were both combined,
My nomenclature was entwined,
For generations close we stayed,
Now my descendants be arrayed.

Aside the Arch, in Athens town,
My needles green, and tinged with brown;
Before they fall into the dust,
They go from green to brownish rust.

Angle-terre was old, you see,
America was new to me—
The evergreen renews itself
From shelf, to continental shelf.

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Said the Millennial

Away with what you say we need:
Cars and houses, lawns and seed.
We missed the memo where you sold
A bill of goods, of cost untold.

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Alec Ream is a writer living in Virginia. His poetic work and creative fiction have been widely published. A member of the Demosthenian Literary Society at UGA, he wrote on Lookout Mountain, and continued to write, lecture and work for Delta Kappa Epsilon HQ. He was first published reading to the pledge class of Michigan DKE, in Ann Arbor in 2008. Recently, his poem Green Fire was read at the Washington Literary Society & Debating Union at UVA.