Fruit from the Trees

Hatred leads us to evil.

They hang on the trees bereft of life

Abandoned by people who never knew them

Dangling like leaves cut from the stem

They remind me we all dangle over the knife

Hatred has a way of festering in deep

Cuts into the souls of the young and old

Makes us weak and meek, growing ever cold

As when we unleash our hate so we may reap

When we found the boys who'd hung them high

Their eyes were stern, slouched and dead

Hatred had wormed and torn deep into their heads

It made their actions so easy to justify

They had been raised with hatred forced in their hearts

When chance came for vengeance, they played their parts

Author's Note

Inspired by the song 'Strange Fruit.'

Reviews

[Solar]

that was a haunting tragic song and this poem captures that mood and how it festers into vengeance 'they played their parts'.

[Jesse W.]

It's a painful reminder of our Southern past, something we hate but have to remember lest we repeat those same mistakes. Truthfully, many of us still do, but that's why it's so important for these memorials to exist.