Illumination

I wonder what sequence of events led to the possibility of this flamboyant, dawn display. I don't mean me agreeing to an 8.30am medical appointment that happened to be just the right moment on just the right day. I'm in the medical centre car park. These trees occupy a narrow sliver of land between the edge of the tarmac and the buildings beyond. I guess they are now trees - is that what they were anticipated to become when they were planted? I doubt it

Their roots must be a threat to the structure of the building beyond, and to the car park surface. Closely spaced, fighting one-another for light, they have grown tall and thin-trunked. In a storm, there must be a risk that they will fall on the buildings, or on the car park fence and anything parked there. Were they planted by the developers of the building? By the health authority? Was it imagined they would be tended as a hedge? Was that someone's responsibility? What happened?

Perhaps no-one claims ownership of this liminal strip. Perhaps no-one on either side has responsibility for a long-term view of the property - or perhaps bigger fish to fry. Meanwhile, with each passing year, the topmost twigs reach higher and higher. Perhaps if I had been properly awake, these aimless thoughts would have been driven out by something more focussed - I might have headed more quickly to my encounter with needles and vials, rather than lingered with the light-show