Letter of the Day: Missed — most of the time

Editor, Daily News:

My wife and I live on Crayton Road in Naples, and we lost two big banyans to Hurricane Wilma last fall.

So we were interested in the note in Jeff Lytle's column last Sunday about the area making a nice comeback.

We miss our banyans. They provided a good deal of shade, privacy and beauty.

All the same, in my daily walks around the neighborhood lately, I've been reminded there's another, untidy side to banyans — one that led me a while ago to compose the following, to be sung to the tune of "(I'll Be With You In) Apple Blossom Time":

We'll be getting bombed in banyan berry time,
Then the sprinklers will turn it all to slime.
When those trees shed
Sidewalks run red
And on driveways cars lose their tread.
What a shady canopy they make;
What a bloody mess left in their wake.
I wouldn't mind
If I could squeeze them for wine
In banyan berry time.

— Henry de Fiebre / Naples