Crumble

I can see only what’s close by,

I can feel the wind high above,

and the light breeze down below,

together I stand with my brethren.

Years and years go by,

Life and then death,

I see it all fly past,

I see it all crumble.

Rome secured the coast,

Mongols take the inland,

Moors the south,

However, all must fall.

Kings rose to power,

Fear swept Europe,

Red scared the free,

one by one they all crumbled.

Through it all,

here I stand,

making only the slightest noise,

refusing to talk about what I have seen.

I saw your birth,

I saw you grow,

I saw you slow,

I saw you crumble.

Your life,

your legacy,

your entire history,

I have seen it all.

As your descendants go on,

as shall I,

watching their legacy and their life,

before they too crumble.

As I take it in,

as I watch my brothers and sisters fall around me,

I know only one certainty,

I too shall eventually crumble.

My great legs grow weaker,

I feel parched every day,

I am the last around,

I am the last to crumble.

For hundreds of years I watched,

A silent bystander in the grand scheme of things,

for I am the record keeper of the forest,

the Keeper of the woods.

I am not around no more,

but as with you my legacy continues,

from my remains,

will sprout another.

I am a tree,

I am the one who watches everything,

and in my death,

my descendant will carry on for me.