After death

I am a tree with bright flowers

And dripping fruits;

But there is a snake in my branches

Somewhere.

No one is brave enough to kill it,

And I can’t do it myself.

Boys won't come to me

For my fruits,

Girls won't pick flowers from me

For their lovers.

The newly wed

Won't sit under me for a photograph,

And the old man

Won't sit under me to read a book.

And one day

I'll die.

And the snake

Will go searching for another tree.

And one day

I'll die,

And they'll say

How I brightened up the hills,

How the grass around me now dies without shade.

And they'll say

How I caught the run-away kite for the boy,

And how I gave my branches for the nests;

At least until the snake ate the eggs.

They’ll say

How badly they wanted me.

They'll finally realise

I could not have killed the snake in my own branches.

I want to die

So that they'll love me

For the first time.