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Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. Leonard Cohen

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Tree

image source
I once tried to climb my family tree
I didn't get very far
The bottom branches were sturdy enough
(although I'm not sure that I'd entrust a treehouse to them)
Then I looked outward
and upward
I noticed a
lack
To the left 
branches were scrawny, frail
mere twigs really
To the right
brittle, leafless, budless
pale with melancholy
As I climbed higher, they
thinned even more
Sun rushed in through scant leaves
no hiding place here
Above me
gaps
I could climb no further so I climbed
down
Later
as I sat by the fireplace watching
the logs burn
I thought about trees and
gaps
lacks
my family
and the trains that
took them away.

written for Theme Thursday, Tree





12 comments:

Brian Miller said...

oh what a sad little ending...the trains that took them away...you made me look at trees a bit different...nice...

still love to climb trees though...

kaykuala said...

A tree can evoke those good feelings of attachment to our roots and surroundings. You brought it out so beautifully.

laurie kolp said...

Very thought-provoking... I really like this line:

Sun rushed in through scant leaves

Fireblossom said...

I didn't see that coming. I don't know what I can say that would be adequate.

Pat Tillett said...

A great poem, but very sad. I'm hoping the trains aren't what I think they are...
Hope you are doing well!

JustRex said...

Wow. That ending zapped me hard. You left me almost completely speechless and that's hard to do.

Maude Lynn said...

This is incredibly beautiful. I didn't see that coming, either.

Mike Patrick said...

A poem with impact. A remembrance of the blight that that never should have been. May we have the courage to never let it come again.

WyomingDiva said...

Interesting build up to surprise ending... made me think about writing about my own f.t. as the diseased, bloated icky thing it is!!!

Christine said...

wow great ending,tells me something very personal about where you come from, from the beginning of this piece my mind went straight to family trees, you didn't disappoint

Bryan White said...

The poem itself looks like a tree.

Very beautiful, and moving.

Anonymous said...

amazing.