The Queen's Court
In this desolate forest of once proud, beautiful trees,
long ago, stood an effervescent tree.
She stood towering and strong
with nimble, yet steady roots
Her flowers the most vibrant, for they shown bursting with life and soul
even through the crepuscular night
Every visitor to this once majesty of a forest
never did delay to admire Her beauty
Each man lingered just one second more
just one glance more
For she was the Queen of this court
And in one summer day
a young Traveler wandered through
into the Queen's court.
Like all before him,
he lingered in her sweet, savory presence
Yet,
unlike the others,
The young Traveler chose never to wander from her magic
from her presence
from her beauty and strength which he so admired
Through Summer
the Traveler and the Queen spent the vibrant days and cool nights
sowing their seeds of Happiness
waiting with jollity for their joy to forever blossom
Yet, as Autumn closed in,
their joy did not bloom
the Traveler,
seeing no reward to his stay,
became corrosive
He stripped the Queen of her vibrant flowers
she no longer had Her light nor spirit to guide her out from the tenebrous night
the Traveler ripped the blossoms that once adorned her leaves
When the astringent Winter crept into the land,
the Traveler stripped Her of her bark
the Traveler left Her Bare,
with no protection from his harm or the world
the Traveler bombarded Her with violent negligence.
the Traveler tore each branch, each limb
straight from her core-
She felt all so deeply,
whether it was a petty notch
or
her largest root upheaved from the soil
the Traveler's corrosive rain destroyed Her.
It destroyed her to a mere stump, for
as he tore each branch from her core
She diminished
Slowly, but ever so cruelly and surely
the Traveler diminished her to a mere stump,
a stump never capable of revealing even the slight ghost of
her Majesty, the Queen of the forest.
By his corrosive ways, the Traveler
cut her down
mutilated her branches
carved notches into her core
turned her radiance into a sickly pulp
the Traveler had dethroned the Queen
in mind, spirit, and body
Yet, the most corrosive:
with not his Acid in the Winter,
but with his summer breeze carried softly into Winter
our Queen would have ruled over Spring
Now she is filed into insignificance
her beauty and strength no longer detectable
in this desolate forest of a once elegant court.