The Old Tree Poem by Chinwe Robert

THE OLD TREE:

The old rugged tree
With thorny green leaves
And many a branches
Posed no threat to Robert Freid
For as a child
He grew up seeing the tree
A play thing
Of play things
A hide and seek tree
Where he stood with love
Young love: Agatha Martins
For Freid and Agatha
Loved each other to ageing
Being a he and a she
On hymen's night of love
For the tree
Was the centre of love's home
A centre standing alone
Built around this tree
Was love and children
They grew old
Older still did it
They had children
Barren was it
And so the tree grew sick
For never had it been a husband
Never a wife
Never shared love
Only seen it
And so the sick tree was
Brown and pale,
Branches fallen
For after being love's magnet
It was left on its own.
And so, dying standing
It placed a curse on Agatha Freid
Who shortly after died on a bed.
And so Robert Freid
Running to a dead tree
A memory of love's first kiss
Seeing memory's lane barren and dead
He cried the more
For his tree of love
Was dead as Agatha Freid
And leaning against the tree
He breathed love's last

For the old rugged tree
With thorny brown leaves
And many a fallen branches
Posed a threat to Robert Freid.