Cloud Tree

 We call it the Cloud Tree because it's far wider than it is tall. Right now, fully leafed out, those leaves are almost the size of dinner plates. With a horizontal branching structure, It’s a rolling cumulus of green from the sky right down to the grass. People stop their cars and ask "What IS that tree??" We know that it's some type of catalpa. We know that it was planted one hundred years ago. Some years it blooms, briefly. This time there are seven florets, a new record. It must have been such fun for past generations of children playing hide and seek. I indulge in a quieter pursuit: enjoying its overwhelming greenness