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.