6 Trees

There was a band of brothers, six of them all living together in the big city, all suffering the harshness of its society. In the city the nights were bitter cold or feverishly hot, or sometimes both.
These brothers were flexible and quick, healthy and strong, fruitful, almost majestic. And with their fierce eyes they looked at their lives, at the nature of their days and they said, "That's enough." They would not stand for whatever undeserved stones this city would throw at them, day after day, and they were strong, and they were together, and they would stand only for something better.
So they walked away from the city one fiery morning, with no desire to look back, with relief at being out of the way of its mean winds, whipping in tangled spirals behind them.
They climbed whatever hills were on their path, suffered whatever storms they passed through, tired but grateful for the challenge. They were exhausted by the end of every traveling day until they found what they thought they were looking for.
The air was calm, there were many streets with many rows of houses, many driveways, many cars, many parks and many benches. And the air was calm. It was gentle, slow.
And so they stretched and they sighed, they looked at each other and they agreed, this is it, this is peace. Home at last. They stepped off their rocky path and onto the grass, they looked around and took it all in.
From then on their days weren't so tormented, and they lived with ease and everyone there stayed out of everyone's way, like they were all tailing along in a circle, all part of the same neverending monologue.
They grew so attached to this lifestyle, so accustomed to it that eventually, all six of them began to find it hard to move around, and this was because their feet became rooted to the ground. They could not keep walking their circular lives but they could not escape its confines. Their skin began to darken, their fingers turned to brittle, bare twigs, and then they were stretching, reaching out into emptiness, and then they were frozen solid. They were six trees.

jan 1 2011