As one walks quietly among the majestic oaks...
They could only imagine the stories these trees could tell...
From the romantic tales of unrequited love...
To the Southern gentleman consoling an unsuspecting young belle...

The stories about the first lovers...
Who embraced deeply in lust...
And loved each other as only teenagers do...
Long into the twilight of the evening dusk...

And the adoring married couple...
Spreading the picnic blanket under the shade...
The husband would read sweet poetry...
Sharing a lunch his young wife had dutifully made...

And then there were the children...
Running around playing hide and go seek...
They would run so hard from tree to tree...
Until they tired themselves into an afternoon sleep...

And while the stories one could have imagined...
Would often be all cheery and bright...
Other times the stories might tell a sad tale...
One of darkness and woeful plight...

Like the hanging of the young man...
Whose crime was stealing a horse...
As a teenager fighting for the rebels...
He was no match against the strong Union force...

Or the black man in search of his freedom...
To find his beloved family was all he could hope...
Silently walking North along the banks of Bayou St. John...
His young life finished at the end of a rope...

And the stories abound of the Dueling Oaks...
Where unimportant scores were settled to the death...
It’s among these trees where lives were cut short...
Where many a fool took his last dying breath...

But today the stories are different...
As thousands come here to play...
The majestic oaks tell a different story...
One of friendship and finding a better way...

It is among the majestic oak trees...
That our thoughts are spoken as forgotten care...
So that we become one, together, with nature...
In what we refer to as a spiritual affair...

© 2020 Jeffrey Pipes Guice