My Friend The Sycamore

Long ago I left you in tears.
The house was tumbled down.
The yard became overgrown.

Even though I left that cherished
childhood place, it remained
lodged in my heart.

You were still there my friend.
To anchor me so that my heart
would never leave.

You were my security as a child.
Through a childhood sometimes
racked by turmoil.
                                       
You were the only constant in my
childhood.
Through a childhood always pursued
by change.

The only steady foundation to place
my childhood dreams upon.

Living, never dying.
You withstood time, surviving the
change of a world around you.

Your lofty branches soared to the sky,
inspiring my imagination.

Your form was very beautiful in my eyes.
Instilling a love for nature that will never
be forsaken.

Nature’s testimony of your grand life.
Made an impression on my mind and
heart, inspiring me to become a poet.

I went by that childhood place.
You were chopped down, reduced to a
lowly stump.
A fence erected by your once proud
life.

The people who destroyed you were
ignorant of the special place you held in
my heart.

I cry for you now my friend.
When you were still there my heart
belonged somewhere.

A changing world no longer held back
your death as I hoped.

The hope that you would survive time
past my prime has been broken.

The constant of my childhood is lost
forever.

Only this hope remains of your past life.
The inspiration and dreams of my heart
that you rooted within me.
Will never be conquered by your
destruction.