-- Nothing Could Be Simpler --

By John Herlihy

While my story is much more complicated,

I prefer to keep things simple.

The ground below in all its richness,

The sky above in all its fullness,

The wind whose voice has soft caress,

The horizon as tender lip of the world.

Did I forget myself? There I stood.

As firm as braided rope, as tall as a minaret.

In all my elegance, one could say,

In all my simplicity, I prefer to say.

In good company, I am never alone,

With no need to travel, always at home.

I grow to great heights one day at a time.

People live and die as the ages may pass.

But each day belongs to me as mine

As to my source and origin? Where I will go?

This I never question. Doesn’t everyone know?

Things happened, you ask, along the way?

As each day passed, I had something to say.

Without any complaint and without any words,

I became the home to a multitude of birds.

As I said, the whole story is much more complicated;

But my place in the tale, nothing could be simpler.

The forest speaks of something grand, the big picture;

But the solitary tree has meaning, its greatest feature.

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(c) John Herlihy 19 April 2019