Despair

Summer is here again, and it is killing me.

But, before I go on, let me tell you a little about myself. I am twelve years old. Like a normal child I was growing well and life seemed a breeze. I was well taken care of and had nothing to complain of. Oh! I forgot to tell you the most important thing - I am a tree, an apple tree to be more precise.

It was a bunch of us that were planted together and we had a good time growing up. Then after the hard winter two years back, I never grew my leaves back again. I was given special care and attention, but nothing has helped me till now and I am fast losing hope.

Surrounded by trees with fresh, green leaves, I feel so miserable. I don’t want to, really I don’t. I want to rejoice in the happiness that surrounds me. I want to sway with the wind as it blows through the leaves of my fellow trees. But I can’t.

My misery, unbearable in itself, stands out even more so when every tree around me seems radiant and fresh and green. I have wished for death, for men to cut me down for I am useless. And yet, they care for me and try to make me live. I should thank them and rejoice, but I can’t because it all seems to me an act of merely delaying the inevitable.

And yet, hope lurks somewhere. Every time I feel the sap rushing through me, I hope for a leaf. It hasnt come yet. Maybe one spring it will or maybe I will not be alive to see that spring.

But, whatever happens, I am lonely this moment, even though I am surrounded by happiness, joy , summer and my friends with leaves and flowers.