Thelonious Tree had so long been in slumber
That no one alive could remember the number
Of years he’d been snoozing, and it became understood
That Thelonious Tree was asleep now for good…
On the first day of spring, dawned a day calm and fair
When a horrible noise pierced the still morning air
It rattled his roots, yes it shuddered his trunk
And dimly Thelonious heard the ca-thunk!
That rustled his leaves where birds were at nest
Till grim and confused, he was roused from his rest
Ancient Thelonious opened one bleary eye
Saw the soil caked with concrete, saw how smog choked the sky
And worse still he saw that clamorous sound
Belonged to a man far below on the ground
With an axe in his hands, and the axe went ca-thunk!
Each time it was buried in the side of his trunk.
From a slumber so deep it had lasted an age
Thelonious Tree woke to a terrible rage.
He shook off the very last traces of sleep
As he pulled out his roots from their place in the deep
He reached down and with a sickening smack!
Threw that axe-man so far he would never come back.
The man landed far off in the limbs of some trees
Where he threw down his axe and he yelped out a “Please!
“That the tree’s were alive, why I never did know!
I’m done with my axe now, I’ll just help things grow!”
Meanwhile:
Thelonious Tree found that nothing was green,
There were but stumps in the earth where his friends once had been.
They were now houses and fences, they were table and chair,
The were burning in chimneys and polluting the air.
Heart heavy with grief, he at last understood
That the humans cared nothing for trees: only wood.
Fast flowed the tears down the gnarls of his face
And his voice, thick with pain, filled that listless grey place:
“Besmirchers! Despoilers! What have you done to the earth?
Did you so quickly forget that all life has great worth?
In your pride and your greed, did you not pause to wonder
For the life that once thrived where you recklessly plunder?
With such haste you’ve destroyed what took so long to grow
And the creatures who lived there have no place to go.
In the time of concrete and plastic and axes that hack
There’s no place for a tree, so I doubt I’ll be back.
At least in the comfort of dreams I may find
A beauty and balance you’ve left far behind
For the children born into this grey world I grieve
For all that you’ve taken, they must fight to retrieve.
Yet for those who may look, there’s still hope to be found
If you sow love in your hearts and seeds in the ground.”
With a creak and a groan and a rending like thunder
He pressed his roots to the soil, and burrowed them under.
With a cacophonous rustle that made birds all take flight
He stretched his boughs to their towering, thousand year height.
He closed his eyes to a world built on ill-gotten lumber
And Thelonious Tree fell once more into slumber.
But:
Perched high in the canopy like some great wingless bird
A young boy was weeping, having heard every word
That Thelonious spoke in his anger and pain
And he swore that he’d not let it happen again,
For in those last hopeful words he’d found a truth most profound:
Sow love in your hearts and seeds in the ground.
So young Felix Finch filled his pockets with seeds,
Pushed them into the dirt and said “i’ll take care of of your needs”
Each day he returned to give them water and care
Till seedlings pushed through where the soil had been bare,
And still he returned, sowing seeds, sowing love
In the shade of Thelonious, sleeping soundly above.
Then along came a businessman, oily and slick,
He had sharp beady eyes and his words came out quick:
“You’re wasting your time growing things in the soil,
You get nothing for all of your work and your toil.
There are so many things we could build in this spot
Like a shiny new mall with a big parking lot.”
But young Felix Finch kept on tending the earth
Said “I do this because I know life has great worth.”
The seedlings grew taller and steadily stronger
And Young Felix Finch, though a child no longer,
Returned every day, sowing seeds, sowing love,
With Thelonious Tree snoring softly above.
Then along came a businessman with a checkered grey tie
And a shark in his smile, and a gleam in his eye:
He said “There’s a great deal of wealth to be made from this land,
If you’d like I could help you, I’ll lend you a hand!
As it so happens, I know a great number
Of people who’d buy from you all of this lumber.”
Felix Finch shook his head, and kept tending the earth
Said “I do this because I know life has great worth.”
The years passed by, and as the forest matured
It was home to all manner of creature and bird.
Felix Finch had grown old now, his face deeply lined
His eyes were now dimming, but they were twinkly and kind.
Though his back had grown stooped and he was knobbly of knee
He hobbled each day back to Thelonious Tree.
Then along came a businessman with a black leather case
And a spotless white shirt, and greed on his face.
He said “this forest you’ve grown with such effort and care
Has for years now been cleaning the smog from the air.
You put in the work, planted tree after tree
So why should the people breathe your air for free?
I’ve crunched all the numbers, and done some deducing:
We’ll grow rich from the oxygen your trees are producing!”
Old Felix Finch fixed the man with a glare
His voice thundered out “how can you not care
For the plants and the animals who share this great earth?
How can you not see that all life has great worth?
In all of my years, the greatest peace I have found
Is sowing love in my heart and seeds in the ground.”
His words hung in the air, they drifted up on the breeze
They rustled their way through the rooftop of leaves
They were heard, quite by chance, by a passing-by bee
Who whispered them softly to Thelonious Tree
Thelonious, the loneliest, whose heart had been broken
By the world he’d beheld last time he’d awoken
With great trepidation opened one bleary eye
To see a vast forest beneath a clear sky
Planted and cared for by the love of one child,
Thelonious Tree awoke once more and smiled.
Asha Lovegrove, 2020