At midnight, the tree,
it teetered and fell
and it's always assumed
it died from years.
But, maybe it died from
loneliness instead?
Maybe it no longer
had the heart to stand.
Its trunk bears its scars,
like that August
it was smitten by a bolt
and almost flamed out.
Or the initials gouged
deeply in its side
by a life with a knife,
to express and confess
a once-burning love
that's long since gone.
Its felling exposes
the secrets it kept,
its abandoned nests,
the confessions
it held onto
from those who sat
under it and wept.
Two hawks scatter around it
in a circular swell;
they say their goodbyes
to the tree where it lies.
At the break of dawn
the hawks are gone and
the sun rises up in the sky.
© Sherri Brannon
It's been awhile. I've been filling my poetry journal with page after page of thoughts, but having a hard time forming them into cohesive poems. The struggle is real! (photo taken with my iphone and edited with various apps).
The sorrow of an old tree meeting its end... we just had a winter storm with many trees falling and the lonely ones are the ones to be hardest hit... after all a forest is a flock of trees and also for trees there is the safety in numbers.
ReplyDeleteYou have painted this scene so clearly with your words. I love the people sitting under it, the hawks saying goodbye..........it will now become a nurse log and support other life. I enjoyed this poem so much. So nice to see you, Sherri!
ReplyDeleteThe idea of a tree dying from loneliness is both beautiful and poignant at the same time. Exquisite write!❤️
ReplyDeleteAh, perhaps trees like people need attention. Without attention / care both trees and humans have a hard time surviving. I feel sadness for this tree.
ReplyDeleteSomething about those secrets spilling from the tree, like pockets emptying, just caught me. Lovely poem!
ReplyDeleteTrees like people need love and attention just like other creatures .
ReplyDeleteWonderful photo, Sherri, and a terrific poem to go along with it. (I am a great tree-lover myself.)
ReplyDeleteI love to look at 'things' in nature and build a backstory in my mind of what went on. Thanks for sharing.
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