Beauty impossible for just one to obtain

Roots so deep

Branches both long and graceful

Facade hiding what’s inside

Gently easing into each layer til reaching your core

It was discovered:: the statuesque beauty was rotting internally

The veneer now broken

Your eyes revealed all that you’d hidden

The pain, torture, and secret longing for salvation

Those who you allowed to intrude

Time after time

It never failed

You had never experienced the feel of something real

Instead you shed your leaves, in the hope of being loved

But, it wasn’t your fault, it’s just what you were taught

You gave so much, but not even a fourth was returned

So, you continued in the hope that maybe, one day……

But each day you got colder and colder

Each day with less warmth than the one before

Until you were ice….permafrost

Never experiencing, never taking risks, never….awake

Until you learned to live again, never truly happy, but alive

So, dear fall tree,

Please don’t shed your leaves and allow another to make you cold ever again.