Tower and Town, November 2016

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The King Of The Forest

I am what I am, no-one else is like me,
Got the gift of a life in the form of a tree,
Seen as the tallest by the people around,
The King of the Forest, that’s how I am crowned.

I taught humans ways that the wild flower grows, 
A drop, and a twinkle, and that’s how it goes,
We’ve had a great spring and the summer’s on time,
To me and my friends, our lives seem sublime.

But what is this gunfire? These shells? That explosion?
The work of the humans? Well, wow! what a notion!
The bullets that send creatures running in fright,
Cause my branches to tremor and leaves to ignite.

Now surrounded in wire, all twisted and barbed
Laid down by young soldiers, in uniforms garbed,
The looks on their faces, masks of their terror.
How foolish of them not to notice their error.

Now I’m burned to the ground to a certain degree,
Too much to survive for an ancient Oak Tree,
Once seen as the tallest by people around,
My deathplace? Well, simple. The great battleground.

Ross Beesley