The winds gathered together and said
“Let’s have some fun!”
They gathered themselves up and began dancing in circles,
Whirling faster and faster!
Spinning, spinning, spinning,
Like young children at play,
The winds gathered themselves up
And pushed, faster, faster, faster!
Screaming out their delight ,
They moved from the water to find new friends.
As they left the waters,
They continued to play,
Kicking around rubbish
Like children on a playground.
The trees were jealous of their movement,
And wanted to be free, to move like the wind.
They called out to the wind,
And wanted to dance with them.
They began bobbing and weaving
With the wind.
“Faster!” the wind cried out,
Spinning ever more quickly.
The sun hid its face
As the wind more swiftly flew,
And the trees threw their leaves in anger,
Straining to be released from the ground.
Twisting, bending, stretching, reaching out!
Shaking themselves in frustration,
And in their frustration they bent themselves down
And shuddered as their boughs cracked with the strain.
Alas! Freedom was not theirs
And the wind howled with laughter
Until tears fell in torrents,
And were lashed about wildly
As the delirium ran unabated.
“Faster!” the winds cried, howling into the darkness,
And the trees again tried to gain their freedom.
And when roots finally released from terra firma,
They found their freedom was for naught
As the released captive fell to the ground,
Still straining to join the wind in its wild revelry.
Finally, the winds tired of their game and moved on,
Leaving the trees sighing in the waning breezes,
Counting their broken limbs and lost greenery,
Surveying their dying brothers.
“If only,” they said sadly to each other.
“If only.”
And the winds spent themselves,
Dropping tears in exhaustion upon the earth,
Their dancing slowly fading away,
Until only a small whisper was left,
Tickling the leaf of one last shrub,
Far from where the frenzy began…
“Maybe next time,” it sighed,
And rested.