Trees

A Poem by Akithma F.

Will the wind blow to me
In a single gust of air
The secrets of the trees?
For I am most envious of them
Tall and proud and natural
They stand rooted to the ground
With the confidence I wish I possessed
And can dismiss people’s words
With the flutter of a single leaf
Only allowing themselves to fall at
The hands of Mother Nature herself

Winter is unforgiving
And will leave the trees shivering
At the dearth of skin
Though their leaves will be stripped,
Their tenacity to sustain will not
The trees shall remain
For Spring’s offer of vibrancy and light
And with that, they shall proceed
To shelter the victims of an icy queen
With the nothing yet all they possess
How magnanimous these
Bony yet prodigious structures are
To care for its dwellers
In the fashion
A mother does for her children

At the sight of Spring,
The trees will shake off
The frost and adversity
Of Winter’s wrath
And use them to bloom
To their full potential
Berries and blossoms
Will befriend the leaves
And create a stunning fusion
But these vibrant beauties
Do not live to look pretty
They live to give
Give their copious fruit to creatures
Give their petals to the wind
Give their everything
Till the environment
Around them is satisfied
We are so fortunate to witness
The most beautiful and vulnerable thing

Summer is the season of the legacy
Belonging to the trees’ mother
And the mother of us all
The glorious Sun
Nothing may mar
The trees’ loyalty to her
Her heat beats down
On their already crusting leaves
Yet they continue to rise
At the command of her rays
Though the paucity
Of rain and kindness will exhaust them,
The Sun is necessary
For her children’s survival
The strength of the trees will unveil
When they burn but not perish
And learn to bear and bask and thrive
In their mother’s light

And when the serene transition
Of Summer’s leave
And Autumn’s arrival takes place,
The trees will sway to the wind
As greeting to her presence
And become blurs of golden hues
How lovely they are
In those coats of vivid leaves they don
But the lovelier thing
Is when those leaves
Swiftly fall to Earth’s floor
As if they’re paying respects
To their place of growth
This evanescence of leaves
Is also a reminder
That only when the trees
Begin to undress,
Can we admire their
Acceptance of change
And fortitude for dark times ahead

But, perhaps,
The thing that strikes me most
About Earth’s trees
Is the way they extend their arms
To every living thing
Always accepting and welcoming
Contrary to that of human nature
But we are capable of learning
Just as the trees are mature enough
To grow and change with God’s aid,
So can we