End & Beginning

End & Beginning

The lone palm shakes its dangling locks

to brush off marauding gales. It tilts

then straightens, a Sisyphus of grit.

But the onslaught persists for years as

intent rips through the flesh of leaves,

snaps the bones of branches.

Cracked bonds run up and down

the tree’s trunk, tall with optimism,

but now bowing to an unseen god.

Then,

every cell lets go, breathless,

the concrete sky falls.

– ‘Hurricane’