Ibis Nights: To Tree #2288

What do you see?
Is it a tree?
Or, has it lost the characteristics by which we define that family.
Tree #2288 is little more than a skeleton, a fragment of its former self.
Limbs, brittle,
Blackened, broken, strewn about the ground.
No green. No canopy. No shade. No shelter for birds.
No squirrel haunt. No birthing acorns.

Roots turned to dust
Cambium, pith, heartwood, withered
And died.
"The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out."
Amputation failed to stop the spread of disease.
And the limbs crashed down.
Was there an awareness
On some non-human level
When the big appendage
Splintered, split, detached;
Impacting with the groundexplodingsplintering
Crumblefracture.
Smithereen.

A Black Knight springs to mind
"Tis but a flesh wound!"
No.
Tis but a turn of the cycle.
Turn. Return to Earth.