My Willow Tree
Oh my Willow Tree,
How did your branches grow so long for all to see? I know the truth of why your leaves dangle low shielding your trunk from all the world’s curiosities. Love and hope, fear and anger — -jealousy are just some of life’s cruelties.
Love is too heavy a burden to bear, it’s why your leaves first started to droop back when you were but a youth.
Hope is a pretty melody the songbirds sing so you hide them away in your gnarled crooks shielding their nests from predators glaring looks.
Fear is your most treasured possession to be hidden, your long cascading branches keep it out of vision.
Anger is harsh but it can’t be felt beneath your inviting green canopy, you were a smart boy to create such a fantasy.
Jealousy is ugly so you stretch out your roots, tucked away just under the surface they meander and crawl trying to get a safe distance, you try to ignore their very existence.
And oh you offer a sense of belonging nestled beneath your magical awning.
And your leaves dance and your branches sway, I think please let the rest of the world just fade away.
And when a breeze blows by it sends your branches side to side, as they part the warmth of the sun rushes over my skin like a tide.
But when the wind is too still the shade grows cold as snow and I pray for a breeze to blow.
I love laying in the plush grass snuggled below your great mass.
I look up at my protector, you offer such stability, but it is just a mask to disguise your own vulnerability.
And this is your gift to me, one you would never allow another to see.
So I tuck it away close to my heart and pray we never meet a day where we have to part.
I lean back against your broad trunk and lift my face towards your blue beauty and ask if I shall stay another day, absolutely.
