story of a tree

I once told someone
A tree told a story to me
And how it grew and grew and grew on me
And he just laughed and walked away
So I told someone else
And she smiled and said okay

But she didn’t believe
I could see it in her eyes
And at the end
I asked if she got the point
The tree was trying to make
But she only said I had self esteem
Problems voicing my inadequacies through
Inanimate objects
Oh, the tree was very animated I retorted
Perhaps you study too much psychology
And too little of life
So she scoffed and walked off

I told it to others
The story of the tree
And how it beat and beat and beat on me
Some waited for a punch line
That never came
And it always hit too close to home
Some said the tree was naïve
One even said he wondered what
It’d say when the chainsaw started
“I bet that’d change its tune”
I bet it would, I said
But he didn’t get the joke
One old lady said, Honey, you need help
And even if that be so, it wouldn’t
Change the story of the tree
And how it cut and cut and cut into me
Or what that story has meant to me

By the end of the day I felt worn
And beat, slightly downtrodden
And meek
And I sat on the sidewalk
And blinked
And blinked
And blinked

And a big eyed boy approached me
Asking what was wrong
Said I looked like his father after a sad, sad song
So I said I had a story to tell
And told it to that child
And at the end asked if he understood
And he said yes, and I smiled
But I wonder if you do?



picture by Ted Martello