The Bonsai Tree

A japanese gardener and the geisha he loves are sentenced to death.

The Bonsai Tree

Behind ivory walls of rice paper 
The humble gardener does kneel
Employing clippers he now snips
Tiny pine shoots with patient zeal

While mindful of his Bonsai task
Catching the needles that stray
He daydreams of being a warlord
With his own garden to display

Floating on whispers and sighs
Captured from her many admirers
A young geisha glides into his room
The humble gardener is who she desires

Assuring him they were all alone
Her arms gently encircled his waist
Red lips tempting so slightly apart
He crushes her to him for a taste

Then enters the furious warlord
Not a shred of compassion in place
With the courage she could not afford
The geisha strikes back at his face

Hands bound they kneel on a platform
Humble gardener and geisha before all
Unlike the bonsai they could not conform
But not sorry to have followed love's call

No regrets had they on point of death
But that they had more precious time
Cut down were they like the bonsai
Ashes scattered like needles of pine

by:  Kimarie Manhart-Freeman