the hermit woke early in his shire forest home out the door padding his feet to the clearing to the acorn he planted a tree hugger in his inner core saw the sprouting twig with unfolding light green baby leaves his chest bursting buttons for many years the same morning jog now the sapling a sturdy oak tree hugged as the sun crested the forest horizon he saw the buds of spring the bell-like leaves of july the acorns of autumn turn yellow orange and red and pile the ground he saw the naked gray of winter but looking up spotted some old brown leaves dry and dead that managed to cling on through the whipping winter gusts he put it in his head to climb the tree and pick the ugly things off but they were high and reaching for a dead crinkly leaf lost his grip and fell to his death his body decomposing under the tree weeks passed to spring the oak buds pushed the old stragglers drifting down to litter his corpse 4.0 10/10 © Brian Peter Hodgkinson
The Hermit And The Oak Tree
22
Apr