The Ash Tree

1

It was when the path became a road

That I went right for I was told,

The way itself was paved in gold,

Where youth remained “never old.”

2

But left was right and right was wrong

I should have known that all along,

For the moment came then it was gone,

One final verse from one final song.

3

There was no riddle to this maze

Her beauty held no average gaze,

Or could be dreamt from a careless daze,

And consumed me still in a frantic blaze.

4

At first the seasons remained the same

But by and by they began to change,

And in me saw this something strange,

That my want for her began to age.

5

Do not mistake this for a foolish dunce

It didn’t happen all at once,

But as the weeks passed by and turned to months,

I saw my freedom as some precious bunce.

6

On a reckless youth I’d love to blame

Or on what Nature made but couldn’t tame,

For I had a reason–but I lost its name,

Now my source of pride is my point of shame.

7

So when bottom fell and our time had passed

She became once more, more than I could ask,

But the space between had grown too vast,

We’d gone too far and far too fast.

8

Oh what a wicked lesson learned

When once crossed there was no return,

Now each regret must await its turn,

And stoke this fire to an endless burn.

9

So upon the edge of a great divide

In the hallowed corners of my mind,

I see now that I was blind,

It was me I found I couldn’t find.

10

Now darkness hangs on sleepless nights

Where there are no colors, black or white,

And with her gone so went the light,

And what is left is far from right.