Lost Brother

Lost Brother by Stanley Moss

I knew that tree was my lost brother
when I heard he was cut down
at four thousand eight hundred sixty-two years;
I know we had the same mother.
His death pained me. I made up a story.
I realized, when I saw his photograph,
he was an evergreen , a bristlecone like me,
who had lived from an early age
with a certain amount of dieback,
at impossible locations, at elevations
over ten thousand feet in extreme weather.
His company: other conifers,
the rosy finch, the rock wren, the raven and clouds,
blue and sliver insects the fed mostly off each other.
Some years bighorn sheep visited in summer -
he was entertained by red bats, black-tailed jackrabbits,
horned lizards, the creatures old and young he sheltered.
Beside him in the shade, pink mountain pennyroyal -
to his south, white angelica.
I am prepared to live as long as he did
(it would please our mother),
live with clouds and those I love
suffering with God.
Sooner or later, some bag of wind will cut me down.

When I read this poem i didn't really know what to think because I didn't whether or not it was really talking about trees. But after reading it a couple of times I sort of thought of mother nature and the trees and how they are getting cut down faster and faster.

The line "I am prepared to live ass long ass he did (it would please our mother)" made me think of how mother nature would be happy if her trees would stop being cut down. Then "he was entertained by red bats, black-tailed jackrabbits, horned lizards, the creatures old and young he sheltered." This made me think of all the animals that lose their homes when forests get cut down.

The last line is the one that confused me the most "Sooner or later, some bag of wind will cut me down." This was confusing for because I don't know if the poet meant that wind would push it down or it was get cut down by a human.