Two ancient oaks grew side by side
One bent and one upright.
The upright oak was strong and proud
And lived by simple codes:
Bathe in the sun, reach for the stars, give to the wind…
While the other oak was slant and strange
It dipped, and drooped, and scraped the ground.
When one day a wondering man came by
He curiously confronted the crooked oak, saying
“Your brother’s grown so straight and tall
With limbs so finely high,
Why thus would you grow so down and odd,
And bare with darkly twisted trunk? ”
“Because” the ancient oak replied
“When I was but twigish size
A man once came this way,
He stepped upon my sapling self
And formed my growth thereafter.”
Matt Johnston
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-tail-of-the-twisted/
