Sharon Baker

The world I knew once taught me faith like this:

Sit up, straighten up, beg forgiveness before you're dismissed.

An aspirin between the knees or you’re made a sinner for hell,

Take a look and see just how far the unfaithful ones fell.

This is the weeping willow of my life,

Chopped down by these words, this knife.

Is existence no more than a worthless twig,

One of many saplings only turned into a fig?

My branches spread far around,

But my roots nowhere to be found.

Beneath the sharpened bark, a hollow girl,

Believed she was nothing for this world.

I began to ignore faiths far and wide,

Because they ignored the tears I cried.

Then a change swayed my point of view,

And that change just happened to be you.

You took me broken, you made me new.

And under the surface my roots grew.

You taught me a truth, a reality to believe in,

And showed me a world beyond being a sin.

You were a deeper love, a blaze sparked in the dark,

You were a door opening, a journey for me to embark.

With you at my side, I learned something real,

But it never prepared me for how it would feel.

I gave my oath, a promise to come back,

you worked hard to see my future unpack.

And I could see you there, the life in the crowd,

With the bells, the dress, the rings, and the vows.

You said you’d come see it, and this I would believe,

But never did I think that it was time for you to leave.

When the shadow rolled in, the thunder, and it’s ring,

That's when the sisters of fate too soon cut your string.

Loss, a fatal blow, where my roots then decayed,

Because then, the light you started never stayed.

I thought you’d hold on as my roots reached for you.

But I was too late, and this you already knew.

Once intertwined, our roots fed each other’s life,

But with yours uprooted, came mine in strife.

I reconsidered the meaning behind my existence.

And struggled against the world, my resistance.

I discovered that faith is but a poisoned dream,

That once lured me in with it’s promising gleam.

That snatched the very essence of my soul,

And returned my inside to a worthless hole.

The only reason I believed was because of you.

You were the only one that gave me a reason to.

And with your absence, a sun that no longer shined,

Where once again, my willow edged on the line.

The line for life and death, for right and wrong.

My branches no longer had a place to belong.

So here I stayed, with my roots all gone,

And for this world, I was a lifeless pawn.

I fought to survive, for rich soil and warm sun,

But the world’s destruction had already begun.

So I caved in, and rotted from the inside,

And on your grave, my willow tree died.