The Lost Breath of Trees Colleen J. McElroy an oratorio for vanishing voices, collapsing universes, and a falling tree. —Lena Herzog, Last Whispers 1. in the days before urban sprawl this town remained no more than cow pastures logs skidding down to the harbor gulls riding them like surfboards a green belt embraced the one road north a hundred years they say until the lease expired in those days trees lining each side threw shade over hippies and geese bound to the same direction this was the rainforest and we took for granted the trees that sheltered the sun in shimmering [...]