Maple Decay

by Grandpa

As you used the gift

in God's old name did

My well climbed maple die before your eyes?

Four times life-styled

and he never...

Always wrong

Always very polite until the moment

Always sprouting less

than one

year before.

Grey.

Grey in Spring.

Orange and red in June.

This street, this life killed

each cell by cell.

While my climbing maple dies before you eyes

can you see that my life

Four times styled,

reached for the same blue sky

in days of apparent youth?

Now, as it stands,

more Black

than Grey,

Can you see the same blue sky?

Can you see that my climbing maple

was dead while I sat

looking down at the reflextions

of the same blue sky?