What They Were Made To Be

The trees on the ridge all point one way,
wind bent from a lifetime of resistance.

You can tell the way the wind blows.
Limbs all hanging on for dear life.

but only on one side.
The others have surrendered, cracked off,

blown away, just the way the wind likes it.
But this is not how trees are made.

They are made to reach out and up
in every direction. Made to expand. To grow unfettered.

I am sure there are those who love trees
Bent to the wind. They see poetry, symmetry,

a certain safety, which is more important
that what might have been had the trees been left

to be what they were made to be.

About this poem

A parable for the times. And about trees and wind.

Leaning into the wind,

Tom