An Old Tree

The tree is bent,
like a person spent,
dropping at an angle,
some branches still dangle.
Do its roots mingle with another?
Making each other stronger.
or sharing worldly bother,
like a brother with a brother.
The old tree has some nest(s),
can still provide shade for rest.
In past, it’s been through many test,
tall and leafy-the very best.
Does it think what will happen?
A heavy breeze may leave it shaken;
will it be cut and its wood taken,
but, it’s not yet broken.
An old man walks under an old tree,
both seem to say-you and me,
have been around and seen it all,
good-bad, zeniths and falls.
Is it time to go?
We don't yet know.
But when the call come(s),
let us be ready to welcome.

Shalini Kathuria Narang is a Silicon Valley-based software professional and a freelance journalist. She has reported for national and international newspapers, magazines and news sites. Her poems have been published in several anthologies. She is a monthly contributor to Masticadores USA and has been published in Spillwords Press. She is originally from New Delhi and has settled in the Bay Area with her husband and two daughters for 25+ years.