Immigrant Trees

One of the trees in my front yard 
   is not from around here
		It, or rather its ancestors,
			came here a seed or a seedling,
Perhaps it was transported deliberately, 
	with some farmer or landowner’s
		plans for a yard or a crop.
Perhaps it came by chance, a seed 
	in a clump of dirt or in 
		some animal’s digestive system:
			No papers.

The other tree is a native species,
	the scion of great trees in a trackless forest
		that stretched from the ocean to the prairie.
Its lineage knew the eager axes,
	and later bulldozers.  Remnants
		were saved in less desirable corners,
A few were selected for shade and decoration.

Both trees are in full leaf
	with green nets to catch the sun.
Which is native, and which of foreign 
	origin?  The trees don’t care.

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