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UGLY TREE?
Ugly is an ugly word…whether in prose or in a rhyme…and I apologize for not only using it thrice already…but in this poem…you’ll see it three more times.
On a walk the other day a man and woman a little distance ahead of me…looked up and said simultaneously…”That…is one ugly tree”.
They walked on…unaware of their disrespect…of this I have no doubt…
but I found my interest piqued…so I stopped to check it out.
What I saw was an old palm tree…its fronds a faded brown…
the tree was standing tall…but its fronds were pointing down.
As I looked up at this tree…I found myself enthralled…for it seemed to me, in its old age…this tree was going bald.
I imagine, like some of us humans, this happens to some old trees as their life begins its slowing…but out of the baldness of this tree…another tree was growing!
Another seed had found its way…perhaps flown in on the wind…and landed in the place where this palm’s fronds had thinned.
By the grace of Mother Nature…this fortunate seed was sown…
on top of that old palm tree…where it’s taken root…and grown.
The tree I saw was not an ugly tree…something quite different instead…
I saw one old tree happily taking care of a new tree growing from its head.
I saw an old but younger looking palm tree…who, now that the seed has grown…realizes for the rest of her life…she will never stand alone.
No…I could never call this tree ugly…
not just because to do so would be mean...
but because it happens to be one of the most beautiful trees…
I have ever seen.
