Reflections Of Me Poem by Carol DeFrancesco

As I look in the mirror I see a reflection,
it is that of a weather beaten tree.
Her leaves are brown, dry, and brittle
anticipating the cold of winter.
Though her roots are planted firmly,
her branches reach out as if they are asking for a comforting hug.
Yet they only grasp at the frost bitten air that encompasses them.
A soft sweet song whistles through her witherry limbs,
but there is no-one there to hear her haunting melody.
She sings of the changing seasons.
Spring, bringing a re-newel, a rebirth.
Sprouting her delicate new buds,
she prepares to shade herself from the penetrating sun of summer.
She calls to the cool rains to soothingly cry upon her.
She offers the solace of her shade to those who rest beneath her.
(Though she asks for nothing in return.)
With Autumn comes a gradual metamorphasis,
though her leaves become radiant as the sun it is just a facade.
She knows the bitter cold of winter will breathe upon her once again.
Her leaves will wither and fall,
revealing the coarseness of her bark.
But under that coarseness lies a silky, smoothness that only she knows exists.
Through all her years of standing,
she secretly weeps for someone to see through her roughened exterior,
and behold her beauty that dwells within