A Cedar Among Coconuts is a poem written by Pasithea Chan and shared with The Ugly Writers under the theme Disenchanted for the month of May

A Cedar Among Coconuts

I woke up an uprooted

Cedar lost and parched.

Everything had died

In a majority’s silence.

My ever-green heart became blue

under apathy’s reddened sky.

Haplessness had me petrified

like an ogre who had seen the sun.

I was entombed in desires abyss

long enough to forget my own reflection.

As time went by,

my flowers were plucked.

My fruit fell rotten at my feet

until one day, an ax marked

my bark with an x.

I felt my sap bleed.

But no one seemed to read

In a time of need.

To them, I was just wood

meant to be burned.

I was supposed to make a blaze

that can be seen from miles.

Luckily, I wasn’t old so I was overlooked

For once, being young wasn’t bad!

I watched the sun burn my roots

not my senses, making me realize:

My branches weren’t broken.

My leaves weren’t soiled.

So I said to myself, it must be true.

Darkness can’t scare the dead

lying in emptiness’ bed.

Life is a self-made reality

forged in chaos brought by change.

I had to make a choice:

Lie dead in the sun or run.

I left the sun when I tipped-

Loss’ chalice, a weakness gripped

From memories lost & gone.

I was finally on the run.

One morning, the flood came calling

Time to leave, it said.

I folded my roots & tucked my branches.

Only my leaves knew I was drained.

With no strings attached

I had more chances moving forward.

I no longer live in a pine forest; instead

I planted myself in a white sandy bed.

Coconuts may tower me but I will grow old

where life is the only true gold.

Sometimes roots must be pulled

to save a tree whose heart is disenchanted.

Read more from Pasithea Chan by reading her previous posts here. You can also find her brand of poetry on Facebook.