A Family Tree

A seed of love, hidden deep in the dark,

Gives way to a spark of life.

Tender and fragile,

It stretches upward, face to the sun.

Drinking in warmth,

Life grows and spreads –

A shoot here, a leaf there,

Becoming more than what started.

A decade passes, then two,

Then a century.

Tenderness gives way to strength,

As branches thicken and leaves spread

Into a wide canopy.

There is shelter here –

Cool shade and sound fortitude;

Shared roots.

Seasons change and storms come;

Branches blow apart in the wind

And back together again,

Each anchored to the whole.

Stretching upward, always upward – 

Ever green, ever strong, ever one,

As deep beneath the soil

The single seed of love lives on.