Tree

When I was six,

I climbed a tree

My face became ruddy

And my feet began to blister

As I ascended my impossible Mount Everest

The higher I climbed,

The tighter I clung to the dormant twigs

The looser my chest

The longer my breaths

The tree hummed extravagant soliloquies to the birds who sang silently along

A pinecone whispered in my ear that the clouds were watching me

The wind kissed the striking sun on its blushing cheek

And even fire needs oxygen to breathe

My heart awoke to a world of pain and grief

The tree continued to beg of me to please set it free from the axe that would strike it maliciously

I hugged its roots and wished it the best of luck as I bade it farewell

And my legs shook terrifically

But the tree was still hammered and beaten to the ground

For crumbling green paper that will fade in a sound

An age old piece of time itself exchanged for a snapshot of pride and wealth

A golden ticket for a plastic consumed earth

A scrapbooked sheet of paper worth

My tree was chopped down by the time I was nine

The loss of a life,

A valuable friend,

An amicable companion,

A single tree

My soul crashes down to the shore on the ground from the top of my golden branch

My innocent ignorance played my a man with a cruelly handled axe

When I was six,

I climbed a tree.