A lone cypress
In my grandfather’s lawn
Standing tall and erect
Since I could sense life about me
I saw it there
Still in the brightness
Restless in the wind
But ever standing
Upright and proud
As the sole child
Bequeathed with honors
And the crown
The other trees were puny
Beside its mighty presence
For all the richness in foliage
They couldn’t match its grace
Day after day passed
Unmarred by Time
Its beauty un-blighted
Eclipsing the trees by its side
Their branches sprawled in ungainly curves
Bent and broken at places
Where I hung and swung wildly
Till my legs felt the air
Or I heard the squeak
Of a frail twig
And through it all
The sunshine and the storms
The cypress stood quiet
Like a giant among the pygmies
Withdrawn from the crowd
Shut up in a death-like silence
Un-shattered by the noise
A deep shade of green
Against the pale blue sky
A sight I loved
And thought about in bed
Along with the goblins, fairies
And the stately tower
The cypress stood deep in my mind
Forever young and fighting the odds
A thing with no beginning and end
I saw with bewildering eyes
The spectacle unimagined
Across the courtyard lay the cypress
Fallen from its height
I stood in disbelief
Expecting it to rise any moment
Greeting the sun
Like it always did
Its tapering frame rising ever so high
Slender yet strong
When the harsh gusts shook it madly
There it stood, rooted fast
And although the wind had howled all night
Beating against the shuttered windows
With a fury unheard of
Still a nightmare it seemed
From which I would awaken soon
For a fallen cypress
I could not imagine
Unborn yet
In a child’s mind.
Nosheen Irfan © 2016
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