Lonely Tree by Shiksha Dheda

Flowers burst into colour

-          beautiful little flowers;

bright, pretty

-          whimsical, temperamental-

surrounding

the stern, solemn,

-          sacred   -

sole tree,

scorning it for

its nude

somberness.

Flowers adorn homes.

grace matrimonies.

The tree waits

-           quietly outside

-           ever

lonely.

Insects visit flowers

-          old lovers  -

suckling,

savouring

-          gently.

The tree waits

-          patiently   -

for the winds

to change.

Flowers bud

and blossom,

age and wither

into nothingness.

The tree waits

-          happily -

naked

-          bereft

of leaves.

A selfless home for insects,

small animals

that embrace it

with gratitude.

Brown

-           alive        -

-           survival               -

-           growth     -

against

the white realm

of snowy death

A warrior

-          invincible.

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Shiksha Dheda is a South African of Indian descent. She uses writing to express her OCD and depression roller-coaster ventures. Sometimes, she dabbles in photography, painting, and baking lopsided layered cakes. Her writing has been featured(on/forthcoming) in Brittle Paper, Daily Drunk Magazine, Door is a jar, Luna Luna Mag and Versification, amongst others. She is the Pushcart nominated author of Washed Away (Alien Buddha Press, 2021)