A Single Stitch

A tree is tall, unyielding, strong.
Swaying and shifting with silent life;
ants, bugs, spiders and birds all shelter in its gentle nurturing embrace.

A tree is a single stitch in woven fabric,
a tiny almost insignificant piece in a beautifully intricate system.

If one stitch is unpicked, the entire fabric begins unravelling, faster and faster
until all that is left are whispered stories of what once was.
Pale trunks of ghostly gums,
Sharp tang of eucalyptus,
Rolling green forests that once stretched to the horizon,
and the echo of animals who once called those places home.