Tree

...I saw you fall

fulfilling my prophecy

making me wish

I’d never written the words.

Piece by piece

leaf by leaf

they dismembered you

sliced your past from you

letting it fall

to the ground

where apart

it meant nothing

and meant everything.

The birds you’d sheltered

took flight

at the first cut

while others dared

to light upon

what was left of you

before it was too late.

Now there is

nothing

where you were

but the dust

from which you sprang

a century ago

no words to tell of you

but mine.