Tree

Every day I am raped by the wind
It pushes against me, trying to get underneath my bark, my skin
It moves about me sometimes hard, sometimes with the pretence of caress
It touches my leaves, flaps them about, it knows they are my coloured pride
But it will strip them from me
Meanwhile
The wind's tarts the birds sit in me and shriek

It has always been thus
When first I came up to discover the light
It tried to push me flat
When I grew my first leaves to show the sun, it used them against me
I had to push back underground, holding firm to the earth where it could not go
I held on
So I who love above all the sun am forced to spread myself amongst the dark

In the end it will strip me of my branches
Its constant sucking breathe will dry me out, and then uproot me
Then even my lower hidden parts it will have and lick around