Tree By The Sea

Windswept your boughs,
crusted and dry.
A hundred years remember
your youth; it is
recalled in scrolls of your
peeling bark, on this field
behind The Sea  
under which tiny rabbits dwell
high above the beach  
behind a cliff of rat's nests.
The sea air sweeps up to you.
 
If I were borne of your branches,
I would creak like you
and answer the great Sea.
I would be your fruit and  
the rabbits would feed on me.
 
Where here, among the Juniper,
imbibing its piny-sweet fragrance,
I would step through tall grass
wild among you.
 
I would grow as you,
every bit as patient.
I would feed on this old soil,
full of salt and decay.
I would endure this thirsty land
and pray each day for rain
knowing it will come.
 
I would hear the waves
and feel them in my bones of wood
though far away.
 
I would not envy The Sea,
nor claim for self its bleak reprieve.
 
I would linger here among the boulders,
here in this sheltered grove by The Sea
    
       .....
 
177 words, 111 unique
 
      #HDHildaDoolittle