Monday Meme – The Tree

PLEASE NOTE THIS SHORT STORY HAS ADULT THEMES.

When I was young, I was as supple as a snake and I grew tall and slender. I felt that I could touch the sky with my fingertips and I swayed and sang with the summer wind. As I grew broader, my trunk became the bulwark against which the small creatures of the forest braced their backs in winter weather.

I had just reached the pride of my full prime when the men in hard hats came with their steely instruments of torture. They marked my trunk with y...