The Lone Tree
The Lone Tree
The autumn day has been muffled up
in thick scarf and rainproof jacket
until darkness, countryside darkness,
clambers gradually over the horizon;
silence, stillness obediently at its heels.
Then black the night, wild the sea
and the lone tree stands tall,
branches muscled, trunk heavily rooted,
protective of its remaining leaves.
Next morning springs up; a multi-coloured umbrella!
It begins listening attentively
to the whisperings of the lone tree
teaching its remainder of leaves their tables,
i.e. how many wooden tables
could be cut from a certain sized tree?
Then suddenly scampering beneath is the wind
whistling a perky rendition of, “Good Golly, Miss Molly!”
Then pulling and pushing at the tree's branches,
it plucks at the helpless, hapless, hued canopy
until only a few leaves remain,
until only.. one remains;
a trapeze artist swinging from a high branch.
The lone tree now stares helplessly towards the hills
where its cousins, the evergreens, hold arms
as they dance gaily down a staggered slope
while a well-trodden path huffs and puffs
its way up in the opposite direction.
Then beyond, the sky sits heavily on the sea
as though resting on a blue chaise longue
while that wayward wind whips across
a mustard coloured scarf of a beach
tugging relentlessly at the weak and helpless.
Meanwhile above, the lone tree,
clouds sketch themselves in dark grey
and watch as the wind tires to an old man,
gnawing away with its bared, toothless gums
until finally that lone leaf.. succumbs.
Later, the hills step backwards into a fading light
leaving the lone tree standing naked
apart from wooded limbs swaying heartedly
in an attempt to cover its remaining… dignity.
Ian Souter Dec. 2024
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