Work Text:
Once, there was a tree.
The tree lived near the river. Most of the time, it liked its home.
The shallow banks, the wide variety of fish to stare at.
It all felt nice. Most of the time.
The tree also had friends: the elder trees and the reeds.
It never liked saplings.
The tree sometimes felt jealous.
A little, annoying thought that always bothered it every now and then.
The elders were bigger. Taller. Sometimes slimmer.
The reeds were dainty, swayed in the wind, and lived on the banks of the river:
the place the tree loved the most.
The tree may be jealous, but it doesn’t want to think so.
The tree knows what it looks like.
It’s stumpy.
It’s short.
It’s still growing.
Ugly,
but it somehow keeps living.
No humans cut its branches.
The birds, bees and butterflies still pollinate its weird-smelling flowers in the springtime.
So, every day,
The tree sits,
sways,
and lives.