The Clearing - Edit2

[tectak]

Needed a kick to get busy and revise this one - thanks to all for providing it (edit below and in the IP).

@tectak - most inversions are gone (one of the codicils to "Eschew archaisms!" is that, generally, if the line contains an inversion, pushing on the line a little harder will eliminate it).  I have left traditional capitalization for now, and the couplet, but they are of course subject to change.  Finally, though the experience of watching a forest go down before my eyes may be a cliche, it was new to me and seemed to require (or anyway inspire) comment.  Though, likely, better than this.  Thanks for your help!

@CholSerp - Thanks, it's important to find out what *is* working as well as what's not.  I've eliminated "élan" but labeled the 'dozer "lusty" instead.  If it was not clear, I don't disapprove (in fact, it could be said I approve, ideologically) owners doing as they like with their property - no tree-hugger, I.  In the present case, a degree of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) balances that sentiment.

@achebe - see above ref. inversions and pronunciation directives, now eliminated.  Thanks for the read, good critique, and your confidence I can do better.  All helpful.

@Erthona - on technical aspects, see above; amends have been made.  No, this was not intended as satire, or if it is, it satirizes my own sense of loss while also (intellectually?) admiring the industry and ambition of the process.  Does the edit bring that out better, or anyway less clumsily - ambivalence rather than confusion?

And no, this had never been submitted before... but I do write about houses and trees a lot, and people's wishes about and reactions to them.  Does that qualify as a theme or trope rather than repetitiveness?  Maybe if the works are good enough individually (which, at best, remains to be seen.)  Thanks for the bracing and vigorous critique.

Edit 1

Just north of my house lay a little wood,
Ten acres packed with scrub-oaks, thorny, wild,
Cut by a deep ravine.  Town-bred, I could
Lose track and time there; forest-glad I smiled.
Last week a yellow diesel Cat arrived,
Steel-taloned, dozer blade down at its head.
With screeching treads it lustily contrived
To uproot every tree alive or dead.
Now, oaks torn down, I see far neighbors where
My view was wooded; spacious houses rise.
Where squirrels rushed and owls would hoot and flare,
Near neighbors soon will share my emptied skies.
    Some fuel and twenty tons of steel that roams
    Did this - those and the yearning dream of homes.

Author’s note: It transpired that the new development was named “The Preserve at Oak Grove.”  It has now been renamed “Nine Oaks.”

Good egg,
though I fear that "traditional capitalisation" may be a misnomer. I no longer salute yellow AA vans as they pass.
Best,
tectak.
Good edit.