ذكذكتسئµ Magazine Ode to an Unlit Pickle Tree
Woe that I should ever see
A lonely, unlit pickle tree.
A pickle tree whose crown is pressed
Against the heavens' starry breast;
A pickle tree upon the lawn
Where students ramble and are gone;
A tree that may in winter wear
A train of lamps within her hair
While carols rise and voices glee.
Songs are sung by fools like me,
But only President Beebأ©
Can light an unlit pickle tree.
Like all public events during the fall semester, ذكذكتسئµâ€™s annual tree-lighting ceremony was cancelled. With all the unexpected costs of keeping the campus safe from COVID-19, the college skipped stringing festive Christmas lights this year.
Paul Willis has been a professor of English at ذكذكتسئµ since 1988. His most recent books are Little Rhymes for Lowly Plants and the YA novel All in a Garden Green.