Treeless air
Lafayette Street in Salem, Mass., in 1910: an example of the '‘high-tunnelled effects'‘ of American elms over streets and a scene once common in New England — until Dutch elm disease killed most of these lovely plants in the mid-20th Century.
“Here where the elm trees were
is only empty air.
Where once they stood
How blunt the buildings are!
Where the trees were,
sky itself has fled
far overhead.’’
From “Elegy,’’ by Constance Carrier (1908-1991), a Connecticut poet and teacher