Pine and Oak: A Sonnet

"The Protestant pines and Catholic oaks." -- from a poem by N.L.

The stern pine always stretches for the sun.
There's no equivocation in its trend
Toward height. Its cells have all agreed to send
The life force upward. (Oh, few or none
Would dare suggest perhaps it might be fun
To try the horizontal!) They comprehend
That striving upward is the proper end
Of upright things, and the pine tree's done
Just that --
although it's slightly maddening
In its precise direction. After all,
This ancient oak tried twig and shoot each Spring,
Accommodations that it lightly made
For Spanish moss, for mistletoe, for shade.
Behold, my friends, it too is very tall.

-- Warren F. O'Rourke, 1969 (revised in 2004)