The Stalking Tree (Tribute To Shel Silverstein) Poem by Kevin Patrick

There once was a lonely tree
Who found a little boy to love
And the boy would gleefully come
Resting happily beneath her shade
Taking her falling leaves and
Make piles for a giant's beds
He would Run around her trunk
Dancing carelessly with his partner
Sometimes he would climb her branches
And pretend that he was a pirate
Or Jack and the beanstalk
And the boy was happy,
And the tree was happy.
She said ‘boy, boy, will you be with me
Forever"
And the boy gleefully replied.
I will be with you forever"
As he wistfully went in circles
Beneath her loving eye
It was bliss




But As the boy grew older
He would give her the cold shoulder
Until one day he didn't come at all
The tree became lonely
And wondered what happened to her friend
So she became other trees,
And she found the boy in high school
Only now he was a teenager.
When he left the school
She whispered to him
"Boy, boy remember me
Why don't you come and play with me"
The teenager gasped in fright.
Picked his words carefully and said.
"I cant right now, I must study for school.
Maybe I will see you later"
And the tree was sad but relented.
"oh well if I see you later"
And she waved at him as he entered a car
With a pretty blonde girl.



Yet the boy did not see the tree
And the tree was still sad,
She found him again, this time in college.
He was entering a library
He was now a young man
She said "here boy, here boy
Why don't you play with me"?
The boy look startled
But also tired.
He sighed and said
"I must go away and study
If I want to pass exams,
Please give me a few more years
And I promise I will visit you
And the tree looked at him suspiciously
But shook her leaf's and said.
"Fine I will wait a few more years
Then we can be together again'
And she watched him go happily
Into the library and waited.
She only needed a few more years


The years came, but the boy did not return
So, the tree searched again.
And found him working as a taxman
He was now a full man
Full of Glee, the tree screamed
"Boy, Boy, its me the tree
I cannot wait for you to play with me
The man looked and gaped in horror
Then horror turned to outright anger.
With a belly of fire, the man now hollered
"I can't play with you anymore!
Cant you see I'm now a man,
I cannot climb your branches
I cannot pick your leafs
Or dance around your trunk
I must work all day to pay my mortgage off
Cant you please" he screamed
"For heavens sake leave me alone"
And the tree listened and patiently
Thought, and in a whisper of leaf's
Said "Never"
She said "You promised to be my friend'
And I will never leave my friend.



And then she never did
She became the trees on his way to work
She lived as the tree next to his house
And the leaf's in the park
And his nights on the town,
She followed him in every shade of green
To the gym and the grocery store
And even the leafs on the dentist door,
When he went to see his girlfriend
She booed at them as a sycamore
And every night he went to sleep
Her branches would knock discreetly
Always baying with a whisper
That grew steadily more sinister
Telling him again and again
To visit her once more.
Doing this
Day after day









then one day the boy went mad,
And found himself an ax,
And then he began to attack
Every tree within his eye,
He cut down maples and oaks,
Mowed down redwoods and ferns.
Lobotomized hedges and shrubs
He chopped trees down in parks
Where screaming children ran
Went into arboretums with flamethrowers
Like it was his very own Viet nam
He even attempted to take a machine gun
And pulverize a lot Christmas trees into pulp
While a freighted Santa stood and gulped
He cut everything he possibly could
Until one day police found him
And took him to a hospital
Which gave him a very special jacket.


in a cell where he was drugged
he would whisper to himself
"Please leaf me alone, please leaf alone"
Yet when he walked the garden
The tree found him as a rose.
"She said boy, boy now will you play
With me forever
And the boy stopped and looked
And looked at the rose.
He said "Yes, I will play with you"
Then that night, the boy found a knife,
And with a swift move struck his jugular
They buried the man
Underneath a large oak tree


They were together forever
And the tree was happy