Simulacrum

Forget woolly lambs, tin can
stars glued with glitter,
German glass globes
passed down
from grandparents.

Deck the halls
not with tannenbaum,
but fiber-optics & PVC.

Cell towers seduce
the highway eye
with spiked green
bottlebrushes
and dust wands.

Firs in New Jersey,
cactus in the desert,
Mexican fan palms
and long-needle pines.

Like fake news,
the tops will blow off
in storms yet to come.
Plastic needles
in the dirt.

Bioline: Tricia Knoll is an Oregon poet who gets small Christmas trees from a man a few blocks away who raises trees in his side yard and discounts them for seniors. She lives near a cedar she calls kin.

[image: A cell phone tower is camouflaged to make it appear more like a tree June 25, 2001 in Harvard, Massachusetts. The 1996 federal Telecommunications Act prohibited communities from banning cell phone tower construction, but many towns are now asking for moratoriums on the building of towers. Recently, the town of Leicester, Massachusetts rejected a tower, claiming it would be an eyesore in the community. (Darren McCollester/Getty Images)]