The Tale of The Tall Tree

By Thomas Thottungal

She stood tall, taller than all

And had a girth no other could match

In all of Nelliampathy and its surrounds.

Her branches spread far and wide

And the canopy of leaves gave shelter and

shade

To birds and beasts of every kind.

Proud was she of her strength and stature

And the sheer dominance her presence

had.

Then one night a storm broke loose

The kind of which none had seen afore.

The wind howled; the rain lashed

And all things living cowered in fear.

A bolt of lightning cleaved the sky

With power so great as to singe the earth.

The tall tree took the brunt of it all

Scattering splinters for miles around,

Her stout trunk ignited with a lingering blaze

That simmered and simmered for weeks on end

Fed by some flammable matter in her sap,

Eating up her innards like some deep-rooted pain

That keeps interminably gnawing at your heart.

So it burned and burned till all that remained

Was this hollowed out bark gaping in agony at the

sky

Reminiscing perhaps about the glory that was.

By Thomas Thottungal