Dust and Dreams-A Journey
A Tree in Autumn, 1996 (Loss)
A Tree in Autumn, 1996
His fingers of ebony, spanned wide in wisdom,
Embraced ever gently, his foliage skin,
As they blew softly,
In the brisk graveyard wind,
As a child looks upon a wizened old scholar,
Gazed I upon the whole of him,
Eagerly awaiting his story,
To see where he had been,
Began he the tale of a young boy,
Fair in countenance, gentle of heart,
Who had run ‘neath his branches,
Years before, and caressed his bark,
The young boy stood sensitive, gentle in nature,
Frightened in an intellectual, knowing way,
Innocently hiding,
his true self in days,
Sir sun shined warm upon his shoulder,
Father wind carried youth's carefree laughter,
In those birthing years,
As in each year thereafter,
Burdened years, brought forth great tragedies,
As the simplistic death of a crushed ruby rose,
Translucent nakedness,
Sheer as empty prose,
The soldiers of soul stood stonily,
Their minds erased of all,
Save for the complexity,
of a mere Winter's Fall,
As the tree watched, bare in winter,
Clinging to bare limbs, the young man stood,
Oh so pale, stark and cold,
Dreaming dreams misunderstood,
Skeletal shells, of October's cold beach,
Danced upon his wind of life,
Like mere savages,
Of lonely strife,
Autumn's grown child,
At last gazed solely upon a still night,
Losing sight of the path, ever worn,
The moon soul witness to his placid plight,
The old oak had seen the face of LDB,
Had witnessed his triumph,
As had he held unending hope,
Though through time helpless, immobile at his post,
Now the oak be a weeping willow,
For the soil that surrounds the wise old tree,
Was tossed upon the final chapter,
of a man's modern tragedy,
On a cold October day this hardened year,
Left we the willow, at last, alone,
Wept we, a human wall of burning tears,
Tottering in silence from a simple gray stone,
Branches blanket a soul at home there,
As eternally he sleeps beneath the comfort of,
A tree in Autumn, to embrace in his care,
A man we called LDB...........
2002
Cristine M. DiMario
Dedicated to the memory of Lawrence D. Brooks, who left this world October 13, 1996
