OLDEST TREE IN THE COUNTRY

there is this story about a tree, in our town
oldest one around, surviving all this time
whether by wind, rain, hurricanes-even
lightening strikes, nothing ever brought it down
it stood tall; as people from out of town would
come and ask, what was worth seeing around here
so we would always point to the tree, it began
drawing crowds large and small, by word of mouth
people would come from far and near, wanting their
pictures taken with the oldest tree in the country
as the time went by the tree became quite famous
notably on the news, or stories in print, all of which
took on a life of its own  gaining all this notoriety-everyone
knew of it-this went on for years, and while at first, us;
the towns folk never noticed it, thought we had taken
care of the tree, we did not pay enough attention; people
had been touching the tree all this time, maybe for
good luck or a reverence for it; who knows, still slowly
it took its toll people even removed pieces from it, making
off with the bark as a souvenir, that's all it took, most
noticeable were the  bald spots along it's trunk, this
invincible tree which stood in our town for hundreds of years
was susceptible to only one thing, that  which finally brought
it down-the smallest of them all, unnoticed by the naked eye
- the final cause of death-a human germ, passed by a single touch

by Michael Perry