TREES UNBENDING

Trees Unbending


We were like trees unbending,
You and I
Tall and proud, in hardened coats
Rough exteriors, ancient roots,
Painful memories that would not die,
Besetting birds that would not fly,
Growing and growing yet bearing no fruit,
Standing alone with our heads in the sky.

But in the night,
Our leaves would fall
Silent tears would downward run
Whispered vows would be recalled
And days of love in Summer's sun

We were not always trees,
You and I
Once seeds and flowers, stems and vines,
Softly swaying, in lover's arms,
Children of future that knew not a past,
Unaware of the storms overtaking us fast,
Too blind with our love to notice the harms,
Love's jealous cold rain, fell on us at last.

And we grew into trees
That would not bend,
Grew into strangers that could not touch,
Turned blessed words into curses of sin,
And lost the treasures that we loved so much.

We were like trees, unbending,
You and I,
Surrounded by a forest full of green,
Living things that pulsed with love,
While you and I, we pulsed with strife,
Living things devoid of life,
Our branches broken like shattered dreams,
And only dark skies up above.

Till the woodsman came
And cut you down,
And you fell at my feet with a grievous sigh
And the sound of your falling was a terrible sound
And the forest was filled with my too-human cries.

We were like trees, unbending
You and I,
Suspicious mean mouths with nothing to say,
Wasting the years encased in that pride,
Depriving ourselves of the joy and the good,
Starving our hearts of the heart's only food,
Not finding that love again till it died,
Two trees, cut and wounded, now rotting away.

We are like trees, no more
For death has a way of making life
A thing so precious that nothing can
Replace the woman, replace the man,
Tear down the walls,
Remove the pride,
Love lives on in spirit
Though the vessel has died.

This is our story
And you must hear
First with your heart
And then your ear
Don't be like we were,
Please heed our pleas:
The falls come hardest
For unbending trees.

© by Voo
Feb 21, 2011
6:44 p.m.