Life and Death

You may be living…

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A loud crash, and then bright light –

Down went another tree!

No one cared about it, though.

Happy as a clam were we!

-

What we could see through the gap

Was a very rare sight.

Never had we ever seen

Quite so much sunlight.

-

From then on, we all began

Our race to the canopy.

I wasn't big, I wasn't tall,

But the winner had to be me.

-

They didn't like me from the start.

They shaded me from the sun.

I almost gave up, but I didn't –

The race had just begun.

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Our leaves grew bigger, taking up

As much light as we could.

The others may be advantaged

But I was just as good.

-

They had grown much larger leaves,

And they soaked up all the rain.

But they forgot about water down here,

So all mine that became.

-

Time flew when we were having fun –

Weeks had already passed.

Half of us gave up and fell down

But I was growing fast.

-

Many months had come and gone

And so did other seedlings.

I, however, was not like them.

I was strong and winning.

-

I could not remember when it was –

It was years since, maybe.

I found myself above my peers

Up in the canopy.

-

All the daylight, all the sun –

It was all mine, mine, mine!

I slightly tilted all my leaves,

Blocking them from any light.

-

They paled, they weakened, they shrivelled,

I gleefully watched them wilt

Their ends only brought me joy –

No pity, no sorrow, no guilt.

-

I might have been kinder to them, if there

Was more space for the rest.

But what can I do? The world allows

Only survival of the fittest.

-

…but that's not life.

A/N: More work for English, also to be done to a theme in the book Finding Grace by Alyssa Brugman. This one's on 'Social Darwinism'.