A Lonely Tree

In the middle of a field of high yield corns,
stands a solitary oak. Morose, it mourns
its siblings harvested for oak barn beams,
while it alone survives. The lone oak dreams
of a grove of descendants, shedding seed,
sterile where chemically tilled of weed-
killers making the fertile former wood land
uniquely corn. Does this lone survivor stand
as victor or only as a token of the past?
For one century this spreading oak cast
cooling shade for explorers and pioneers.
Now, in its heartwood, fresh new rot appears,
hollowing the trunk that dared not bend
to winds that propose a great tree’s end.