Urban Forest

By Sophia Hammerle

There’s a tree growing inside a street sign
on 30th. A parking restriction with heartwood,
cambium, and bark enclosed by hollow metal.

Wood bulges from the circular holes. Twigs
thrust out budding leaves. They’ve sprayed it
with herbicide like it’s some kind of crime

to survive in this city. Concrete, capitalism,
the American dream. But I’ve seen
the floss silk trees growing along the I-10,

their white puffs dangling down the highway.
I saw a wildfire there, once, too. And I know
the Tree of Heaven blooms in August

between slabs of pavement in vacant lots,
like junkyard bougainvillea. After the earthquake,
the news outlets ask did you feel it

while I’m still shaking. I watched
the wooden joints of that old Victorian
turn to rubber and move like an alive thing,

and I know the buildings downtown
aren’t up to code. But the apocalypse
has already been done, already written,

and some of us have dreams. Came here
from other places like cultivated trees.
My secret is that in this state of Redwoods

and Sequoias, it’s the urban forest I loved first,
the roots packed under dense concrete
unfurling their survival. Pollarded trees

truncated into some sort of chainsaw sculpture.
In Pasadena, there’s a Mexican fan palm
growing in a horizontal arc across a front yard.

I saw a coyote there, saw roots erupting through the sidewalk.
On the interstate, I keep sticking my head out the window
to be closer to the trees.

About the Winner

A senior from Friendswood, Texas, majoring in narrative studies and gender and sexuality studies, Sophia Hammerle says she discovered her passion for creative writing at USC Dornsife. Her interest in environmental storytelling led her to participate in a creative writing class last summer that produced a digital poetry chapbook in collaboration with the USC Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability. She is currently working on a creative project with the USC Arts and Climate Collective on the theme of urban nature.

Hammerle wrote her winning poem, “Urban Forest,” in Los Angeles in the immediate wake of a 4.4 magnitude earthquake last August. “The poem explores the disruption and resilience of street trees as a powerful lens through which to reimagine the way we see nature in urban spaces,” she says.

Currently a poetry editor at Palaver, USC’s online arts magazine, Hammerle plans to pursue an MFA in creative writing after graduating.

From the Judges

In ‘Urban Forest,’ Sophia Hammerle details the beauty of California with stunning imagery, showing us how nature and city spaces intertwine to create mysterious and dreamy new worlds of discovery, resilience and possibility.

Dana Johnson, chair and Florence R. Scott Professor of English

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