The Shell Tree

Martin P. Repetto

Once upon a time, on an empty, sandy beach

There was a tree.

An old tree,

With knotted and bare limbs,

But a tree nonetheless.

Then one day, 

someone, from somewhere

Put a seashell on it

For no reason at all.

Then once upon a later time

On that same empty, sandy beach

Some more people saw that same old tree

And they put some shells on it too

And so on and so forth,

Until the tree was covered in them,

Like a bunch of white leaves.

But then one night, that poor old tree

Was hammered by a frightening storm from the sea.

The kind that only ever comes around

Once or twice a year,

Knocking off all its shells

And so once again, once upon a time,

On an empty, sandy beach,

There was a tree

With gnarled and bare limbs.

Upon which, for no reason at all,

Someone put a shell.