I've Watched You Become Like Me

You~

I peer through your window in unceasing stillness. Despite my desperate rustling, your eyes remain downcast. You used to look when I whispered like this.

I felt your admiration, all seasons, all hours- 'Her scent, isn't it beautiful? Her colors, aren't they resplendent? How beautiful the winter snow atop her jagged branches, how mysterious in the moonlight, how rich brown in the warmth of day'- Unaware that every word caressed my bark like the sun.

Don't you love me anymore?

I would give anything for a tender touch on my own flesh and the heady rush of running and the taste of cinnamon just one last time, anything to lift my voice in song, even just to drink in air, but here I lay, become bones, where no one will ever find me.

I feel your fear every day, the memories of pain stopping your breath before it fully leaves your body. I have watched over you; he does not come here, but still, the numbness consumes and consumes and consumes you, too afraid to feel. The silver box beckons, and there you remain, wasting hours of life that will never return.

Does the roiling river taunt you as it taunts me, tickling rocks and cradling fish? Does the laughter of children make you long for your distant sense of selfhood? Have you ceased hearing all but that tinny music, the fake vocal inflection of smiling people, the repetitive noises, displayed through your little screen? Knotted roots weave a thick trap over my grave, and so trapped are you, chained to an imaginary escape. If only, if only, I could be you, I would rise to my feet and never lay down again.

What happened to me in the woods so long ago has been forgotten. Only the willows weep for me.

The wind comes, and I rustle. It is the last way I have left to mourn.

Please,

I'm begging you to hear me.

An entry for the Haunted Letter challenge, found here: