Sacrifice

A fresh bud blossoms;
drinking up the rain.
How I envy the young thing
that doesn’t know of pain.

A full petaled beauty
being nourished by the sun.
Everything lay before it
in a life that just begun.

Friends begin to whither
as the leaves around it fall.
The lonlieness is deafening.
The world; it feels so small.

The lone survivor endures on
while white flakes touch the ground.
The last thing it hears; caroling.
What a hauntingly sweet sound.

The roots, they stay, and take hold
in the rich soil below.
The end of this fleeting life
allows another to soon grow.