There Once Did Live...
by Odin Roark

There once did live
This tree now of charred tenacity
With crumbling faithful statue of strength
Steadfastly stationed atop its roots

The stone statue of Hercules
Father placed so long ago
Now defaced with apple in his mouth
Made buffoon by children
Enjoying hijinks of youth

There once did live
My fortressed escape
With hammered sticks as steps
Giving flight from reality
My stronghold in the sky

This tree that housed so many dreams
Now but a burned out cavity
Remains of remembered life
Entombed by climbing vines

Flowered embracing round its trunk
Reaching up left and right
Forgetting not the limbs
That once shaded its mythical protector
Now with mouth crammed of apple

How cruel
Yet forgivable
The ignorance of youth
An age clinging tight
The few years it has

And how impassioned we become
Upon visiting where once I did fantasize
My own kind of mischief
Hidden by the branches and leaves
Guarded by mythology I knew little of

Yet

Yet today…

How prescient this head of stone
Askew like a court jester pondering me
Seeming able to laugh at himself
As I remove the apple
Coaxing from me as well
A grin of acceptance