The Old Oak Tree

The night was dark as nights will be
When I found my way to the old oak tree
The air was heavy with unspent rain
And a lingering scent of age-old pain
The thundering rumbles from the distant hills
Lay draping my shoulders in a cloaking shield
Flashes of lightning ripped the darkened sky
Like the scenes of terror that pounded my eyes
The battering wind did steal my breath
But the tree stood tall and still as death
So still, more still than earthly trees should be
And in this stillness, beckoned me.

To the Tree

"I consider now in this converging
The truth I see in you emerging
A book you've surely come to be
Though press or print you've never seen
The tales penned deep within your heart
Have left on me their own vile mark"

(I stumbled here and fell to tears)
But refusing to give in to my chilling fears
I gathered strength and eyed the tree
And the crushing reminders of memories
The gashes winding round the base
Where chains had held a child in place
For reluctance to commit some ghastly deed
And cater to her captors' corrupted needs
Though far from visibile this night I saw
Splashes of tears from the times they'd fall
Mixing in a river of my streaming blood
Crashing to the ground and staining the mud
The ashes from the fires that burned so bright
Dotting the bark and obscuring the night
Leaving a tree that is scarred to this day
And branding the child in a similar way

(At this point I turned away)

The night still lay in its stormy shroud
And the thunder still crashed among the clouds
But I felt a change in the blowing winds
A shifting, and a knowing, and I saw it then
This place that had chased me through the nights
And filled me with unending fright
Was now just a tree, with its sad reminders
And I knew I had returned at last to find her
To unchain the child and set her free,
And make my peace, with the old oak tree.