Summary

Part 3, November, cont’d – This essay is prefaced by a painting of a badger, seeming to be sniffing at the underwear-covered crotch of a woman lying on the ground with her skirt raised.

The Willow – The author contemplates a willow tree in his yard, with more recent growth (trunks and branches) emerging from a rotted old stump. He considers how leaves and new branches appear on it and other trees in the spring, and how trees are often described as being similar in appearance to lungs. The willow, he says, resembles a heart. He describes his belief that trees are something that life passes through, that a tree is “life’s torchbearer,” like parents and children are. He reveals that the trunk and branches of the willow were split when he was younger; how he tied them together, trying to rejoin them; and how...