Word Count: 205
I miss the whisper of the twin cottonwood trees, their large leaves catching each nuance of gossip the subtle breeze speaks.
Torn down by a hurricane, a woman with more strength than the brothers, their tips scraping the sky in bold manly confidence. Brought to their knees by the whims of a scornful storm.
Twenty years settles roots, builds a network that joins with the ground. Like me. My self infused into the earth, growing, learning, living. My other half, my twin, uprooted by the woman called time. Gone in a bolt of lightning she wields as a sword. Wrenched from my grasp, was he, then gone. Leaving me leaning and broken.
Withered arms reaching up to a sky that laughs at my weakness. Charcoal clouds puffed up with the power of eternal youth. They rain down to rinse my hair gray. Sun wrinkles my eyes to its brightness. The north wind that picks up the ocean, bends me this way and that, grinds away at my surface, erodes my body beyond recognition.
Till I’m left still and supine, palms open and empty, my life’s years all stored in my heart. I close my eyes against battle. My last breath blows south like the wind.
