This poem comes from Autumn Leaves:

From ashes to seedling and upward into sapling,

I’ve watched you grow each day.

I’ve cheered you as your root system grew stronger,

Straining deeper and deeper,

Searching for the life-giving nutrients

Below the soil’s surface.

In my own small way, I’ve helped you indirectly

As your spreading roots took away moisture

I was desperately in need of,

And your expanding branches absorbed

Most of the energy I needed from the sun.

It was inevitable as you grew larger and stronger,

But somehow I didn’t even mind as I watched you.

Each day I became weaker while you grew into a beautiful tree.

Strong you stand now before wind, rain, and hail.

Your root system is strong and firmly established.

Your branches have spread like a huge umbrella,

Offering shade and shelter to both birds and animals.

You see, I knew this would happen

As the days passed one after the other.

In your striving to become,

My small existence went unnoticed by you.

Now I am as withered and feeble as you are big and strong.

I know this is my last season as nature waits for no one.

You have almost reached your full height and girth now,

Just as I always knew you would.

The spread of your branches is magnificent.

Soon now I’ll be diminished to a small thistle,

Floating around your branches unnoticed, my presence unfelt.

I always knew this, too.

If I am lucky, my thistle, after playing among your branches,

Will land in a sunny spot and take root.

I will live again.