The Tree ©

There is a leafy tree
Whose shady boughs brought respite,
From Summer's sun,
And then its Autumn leaves,
Whence fell.
A coloured quilt to protect,
From Winter's feathery plight.
Sparkling, we slept beneath its snowy down.

Though those who sleep eternal,
Some, though not all, nameless,
Have long outgrown those shady boughs,
And that too,
That leafy quilt.
For it no longer covers all,
For WAR has swelled our ranks.
No longer lay we hidden neath the tree.