Who could resist falling in love with this tree? I took this photo while viewing some of the temples in the Angkor Wat complex, Cambodia (2006).
This is a tree, its limbs reaching high. Once it flourished, now it's doomed to die. The buds sprouted early, then the leaves -- red and orange Brought color to the tree, that mighty, solid, symbol of me. Yes, symbol I say, for I too stand Quietly peeping at that thing called Man. My leaves fell away, blew to distant lands. There to be picked at by unfamiliar hands. I too stand naked in the breezy night air. Gazing at the stars above, striving for the beauty so far out of reach. All gnarled and dry, it heaves a mighty sigh. We're one, that tree and I, for both are doomed to die.
Republished by Marilyn Paluszak in 2020 from my original poem written to accompany a college writing assignment in 1966.