Selflessly yours – a tree

 

Selflessly yours – a tree

Tree, cynosure of nature’s eyes
Standing tall amidst the woods
Or at the peripherals like a sentinel.
Living selflessly with head held high.
 
Lending its branches to birds and bees.
The canopy of twigs and the crown of leaves
Eveready to protect the earth
From torching sun and torrents of rain.
 
The tree lived on and on
For a hundred years, it still stood tall.
But not forever, for that day was soon to come.
When the roots give way.
 
The stress of a sentry is hard to handle,
As the earth beneath weakened,
Soil loosened, and the crown now heavier
And too big to hold.
 
The tree slowly leaned and slanted.
The earthly forces guiding all the way,
Leisurely at first,
Till it fell with a thud.
 
The earth around lamenting the fall
Of the motherly tree, an icon
That outlived so many
Giving succor to all.
 
Little did it know that even in death,
Its dead root, trunk and branches feed all
Orchids, ferns and cacti.
Termites, lichens, worms and caterpillars.
 
The selfless tree in life and death,
Regenerates a million lives
For a hundred years before it dies
And many decades thereafter.

 (A shoutout to the trees of Valparai, a hill station in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu)