Strip the Willow

Once upon a time

there grew

a little twisty twig.

It grew out of a low wall.

The little twisty twig grew little twisty branches

and was viewed as an interesting 

and welcome addition to

the low wall.

The little twisty bush was novel and ornamental,

a charming, serendipitous curio.

The little twisty bush

surreptitiously lengthened its trunk

and became a little twisty tree -

a twisted willow tree.

It shed its twisted yellow leaves decoratively,

each autumn

and shaded the greenhouse

a little too effectively,

because quite without anyone noticing

it had grown into

an enormous, jumbled mass

of serpentine branches.

It grew until you could no longer see

the gigantic Leylandii

behind it.

Some feat.

One day it outgrew its strength

and one of its twisty branches split and crashed 

onto the ancient but little apple tree cowering in its shadow.

Tree surgeons came and said, business-like,

'It fulfills two of the 4 Ds -

dead, diseased,

dangerous and damaged.'

And so the work began.

It took four hours.

It's amazing how much light
has returned.
I'm going to grow some peas
up some little twisty twigs
next year.