*Illustration reference:
“The Thinking Tree”
of Ginosa, Puglia, Italy
There once was a tree
That grew to hate the world
Hated all the passersby
The heedless boys and girls
Hated all the cars and trucks
That spewed their evil gasses
It saw so many of its friends
Reduced to swaths of ashes
Grew so tall to hate the sky
The clouds, the sun, the rain
For everything was leaching blight
That brought the tree great pain
The tree was not alone
In hating all these things
The flowers and the blades of grass
The birds that loved to sing
All these creatures in their ways
Were tired too and mad
The world once clean and sparkle-ing
Was now so grey and sad
And all the people laughed
At the tree that seemed to seethe
Little did they know the woods
Cleaned all the air they breathed
So came the day the tree gave up
Picked up its roots and left
The grass and flowers stayed below
And died a quiet death
And all the living things
Began to cough and cry
For nothing was around to clean
The poisons from the sky
It tried to tell the people
Be wary of their ways
For if you live without a care
Short-numbered are your days
So will we ever learn?
To live more dutifully?
Or are we destined to give up -
Just like that angry tree…
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