You were just like a tree
A sequoia, strong and tall
I looked up to you,
So tall I couldn’t see where you ended
And the sky began

I always felt weak beside you
Like a mushroom growing in your shade
Sitting on your roots
Benefiting from your strength

When you said,
“It’s sunny,”
I trusted you,
Even though there was shade all around me
And when you said,
“It’s raining,”
I believed you,
Even though your leaves kept me dry

It shattered my world when your first limb broke and crashed to the forest floor
I looked up at you
Not much had changed
You were still big and strong
You were still my tree

But when I looked down again
There it lay
That limb
That proved you could be broken
And once it had fallen
It never moved
And you grew older
And softer
And more limbs broke and fell
Lay like coffins
Each holding something dead inside
A part of you

What was it that kept breaking you?
I looked up
Expected to see monsters
Cyclones
Men with axes

But there was nothing
It was just you
All you
Growing weaker and weaker

Until finally
You lay on the ground all around
In little pieces
Of the tree you once were
Now I was taller than you
And I had no one to look up to

The sun burned me
And the rain drowned me
And you could do nothing to save me

How could you?

You couldn’t even save yourself.