(Paired with “Steadfast Tree”)
O loathsome, hideous tree I see
Are you as Nature meant you to be?
On my life I cannot understand—
How do snowflakes taint a thing so grand?
The snow that weighs you down is heavy
But how can soft flakes be so deadly?
Must the lethal sheet of sleet and snow
Twist and turn your once-strong body so?
The snow determines the shape you take—
Would you shift if I removed one flake?
How soon before those poor branches snap
And fall into Nature’s icy trap?
What wretched sapling did you sprout from
That you’re so easily overcome?
How is it this blemish comes to be
Standing beside such a steadfast tree?
Who could create a creature so weak
And condemn it to a life so bleak?
Who intervened from heaven or hell
To stop you being steadfast as well?
O loathsome, hideous tree I see
Are you as Nature meant you to be?
On my life I cannot understand
How snowflakes destroyed a thing so grand.