Outside the window (Sestina)

Outside the window are trees

Whose branches sway, waving in the wind

Their leaves shake and move in a dance

Except the dead one, stiff with no leaves

It stands rigid, a pole among the life

Unmoved by the breeze, it is dead

No birds rest on its branches; vitality avoids the dead

Ignored by nature, unlike the lively trees

Whose flexible branches bounce with life

Joyous, each leaf alive, wiggling, they love to dance

But the dead tree stands alone, with no leaves

Ignored by everything, even the wind

In my backyard, there are teenagers at a dance

They grow taller each year until you can’t picture any of them as a little tree

The gardener can no longer trim their branches or shape their leaves

They take up more space and do not think of the dead

They’re busy getting the most they can out of life

Their successes and failures travel like wind

The living trees laugh with life

Unaware of the fate that comes after the dance

When it is their turn, they’ll no longer be affected by wind

But now, they’re unconcerned by the presence of a dead tree

They’re the opposite of dead

They’re full of leaves

The clouds whisk by, a blur above the leaves

The dead tree, a silent witness among life

A chaperone of the dance

How the youngsters shout into the wind

In my backyard, I watch it, I see every tree

But I keep going back to the dead

Time rushes by, like a frantic dance

Leaves rustle, spirits in the wind

That touch every tree

And if there is no movement in the leaves

It means the tree has no life

Time speeds away from the dead

Join the dance

Swagger like the wind, stand with life

Witness the dead, sentinels of lost leaves