The unforgiving tree
With apologies to Shel Silverstein
Once there was a tree
…the giving tree…
who loved a little boy.
And the tree had a friend
…the other tree…
who loved her.
The other tree watched
and fumed while the boy
hurt her friend.
He tore off her leaves
and wove them into crowns
of fire and dominion.
He climbed clumsily
onto her branches
and broke their ends.
The other tree scented
her friend’s pain
on the breeze.
And she was not happy.
But time passed.
The boy grew older.
He came by less and less.
The giving tree grew taller
and more melancholy.
And the other tree was relieved,
until the day the boy
returned with a basket.
He seized their fruit
and sold it
in the city market.
The giving tree pined
for the boy’s rough hands.
The other tree mourned
her lost seedlings.
She nurtured
her rage instead.
When the boy came back
with a pretty new wife and
a shiny new ax,
she was ready.
She wrapped her
branches around the
soft young couple,
and squeezed
until their faces
were the color
of rotten apples.
###
The giving tree never forgave her.

Ah, the complexities of life and relationships! Well done