Young writers in action: The Parched Oak Tree

THE PARCHED OAK TREE

by Odette, 11, QLD

 

In the faulty shade of the parched oak tree

There’s a bare old branch for you and me.

Many before us had a place to be,

And we’d all sit by and watch the sea.

 

Long of limb, leaning over the wake,

Serene in the wind, where the sea meets the lake,

A witness of the water; it watches the waves break,

In Autumn subdued; summer monsoonal storms put it at stake.

 

Safe from the storm, each branch waxes nimble,

While the sea dwellers mingle in the shingle,

The culvert of the trunk where the leaf litter hide are

wrangled by the gale and the current and the tide,

And brings rolling forth from somewhere adrift,

the mighty hull of a wallowing ship.

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This is Odette’s first poem published with Alphabet Soup. If YOU would like to send us a story, drawing, poem, or book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy writing!