The Tree

Endowed with a noble and notable
presence it is an obvious aristocrat
among its peers, its great girth and
stature a living testimony to nature's
creatures attaining the height of their
promise in the fullness of time. A
pinnacle of grace as a sentry, an
unqualified presence of stillness and
perseverance; in its adolescent years
other adolescents nailed boards to its
even-then massive trunk enabling them
to clamber upward in an ambition to
reach its spire. Those boards now 
occupy a height where its spire once
dominated the forest canopy, remote
and as out-of-reach as the aloof, proud
pine itself, a symbol of endurance within
a challenging atmosphere of wild
weather and stolid determination. Yet
perfection eludes this specimen of
nature for deep within its psyche a
war raged, its calm exterior at odds 
with the equilibrium eluding its inner
self. This pine with its massive trunk
developed no fewer than three great
leaders, each struggling to touch the sky.