If I Could Be a Tree

Sometimes I wish to be
something other than me,
to escape the life that I have been given.

If I could be a tree
I would reach so high
as to touch the sky,
reaching for the heavens above,
though my feet I would miss
as my roots bound me
to the ground
in which I was planted.

Never to travel the world we inhabit.

No a tree is not for me.

Perhaps a flower
so fragrant
ever so delicate
and oh so beautiful.

Ah but the beauty of a flower is fleeting,
just one season
then gone
petals wilting,
returning to the earth.

No a flower would not be for me,
for I could never be the wilting flower.

Perhaps a lioness,
to spend a decade
prowling the grasses
pouncing fiercely on my prey.

All would fear me.

Though ten years is not so long to live
if you are accustomed to much more,
there is still so much I want to do in this life,
so perhaps the life of a lion is not for me.

Alas I am human
with feet to wander
for years to come.

But oh how I wish they would carry me away
from this life that would see me buried
beneath that tree.

© Michele Markley 2010