Fiction Friday: about a tree

about a tree
5/2/2008 - Monday (not so) light verse, special FF edition
Fiction Friday prompt: Write about a tree (Join Fiction Friday here.)

There are many things that you can see
when you walk about a tree.

Two small impressions, little boots
poked in among the old oak's roots
where Sean climbed Danny's back for height
to rescue their branch-tangled kite.

And further on, a chipped black stone
where Danny slipped and broke a bone
and Sean ran home their ma to tell
that Danny got hurt when he fell.

Now in the bark some letters etched
where Danny took his knife and stretched
up high, his Sarah's name to write
before he left for war that night.

And pencil shavings on the ground
dropped to the dirt without a sound
as Sarah's love and gentle tears
filled many letters through the years.

And here, upon the westward slope
where lovers sat to smooch and grope
in sunset's glow at end of day;
Sarah loved Sean with Dan away.

A bottle piece, a broken shard
where Danny had been drinking hard
and thinking vengeful, evil thought
since Sean and Sarah there he caught.

And here, a blood stain on a root
where Danny held his gun to shoot
his brother Sean who died that day
as Danny watched him bleed away.

And now a shadow, dark and deep
where Sarah comes each day to weep
for Danny's soul, which he did loose
amongst the branches, with a noose.

I kept that rope that Danny used
because his love I had abused;
I keep the gun upon a shelf
and soon might use it on myself.

The things I see about this tree
are Sean and Danny, dead for me.

One of my writing goals for 2008 is to write at least one light verse or poem every week in addition to my haiku wednesday and fiction friday posts. I will try to do this on Mondays.