A tree,
It stands.

Ruler of its own universe woven through thickets of golden brown branches and emerald green leaflets.

Refuge for all and for none, offering solace from the cruel, hot sun.

Holding its arms in a triumphant stance, letting its leaves dance in the wind to their own tune of rustling and clapping.

A tree,
It feels.

It starts slowly at first- a slow seep, an unintelligible infection....

The glistening Mercury winds it's way through the veins that keep the being ruler of all and slowly infiltrates all the secret chambers hidden in knotholes centuries old.

Black like coal, white like fire, none can tell its appearance from anything but extraordinary and yet the tree does nothing. It waits.

A tree,
It wilts.

Ruler of the universe, it hands it's legacy off to the many saplings it has taught how to breathe from the grounds below it.

Refuge for none but itself, the emerald leaves lose their sheen and fall to the ground like a dancer who has twisted her appendage.

Reaching its arms towards the ground in a silent last prayer-last words- it caresses the faces of its children in the soil, giving a sweet silent goodbye.

A tree,
Crying tears of dripping silver onto its children below.

Then it is no more.

Mercury--evil--has won.

A stump.

But it's legacy lives on.

A sapling grows....and who knows.....the cycle begins again.