is it acceptable?

Is it acceptable that I look tired? Is it okay that I seem aged? Is it just fine that I even be old?

What if I am dormant? What if I appear to have died? What if no colour remains on my limbs? What if the snows of winter cover any fruit I might have bequeathed?

Does this matter to you? Do you even try to look deeper and try to understand? To try to comprehend? Or are you quick to conclude… like so many who’ve never tended a tree? Who’ve never had a garden? Who’ve never watered the earth?

I will take you by surprise when the sun blasts high in the sky. I will alarm you when spring touches the earth and warms my roots. I will take you off guard when green buds shoot from my branches and blossoms crown my head and I burst upon your shrunken vision.

Eventually you might have to eat from the harvest I provide. I will do it without resentment or pride. I will do it only because I must… because it is only who I am… and only who I must be.

Buy a print of this original charcoal drawing HERE.