Tree Fall (Poetry)
04th December 2016
No warning signal — just the sudden crack —
the splitting trunk abruptly giving way
to gravity — the dried discoloured sap
revealed as drama shocked the drowsy day.
Broken now ... and dying in the sun
branches hang their length like useless limbs
the glory of sheer size and strength undone
their needles’ green already growing dim.
How many storms it weathered — flood and gale —
go unrecorded in the peeling bark?
Let kinder skies and softer winds prevail
when some cold axe condemns it to the dark.
The seasons had their histories writ here —
every bird that roosted for a night
now gathered — feathered ghosts from far and near
haunt the air — gone silent at the sight.
the splitting trunk abruptly giving way
to gravity — the dried discoloured sap
revealed as drama shocked the drowsy day.
Broken now ... and dying in the sun
branches hang their length like useless limbs
the glory of sheer size and strength undone
their needles’ green already growing dim.
How many storms it weathered — flood and gale —
go unrecorded in the peeling bark?
Let kinder skies and softer winds prevail
when some cold axe condemns it to the dark.
The seasons had their histories writ here —
every bird that roosted for a night
now gathered — feathered ghosts from far and near
haunt the air — gone silent at the sight.