The Only Fruit

The Only Fruit

I

When we were young we looked to you
For pleasure and for pride

We tried to climb your blackened limbs

But your thorns stabbed our sides

Older then, we looked again

But now for fuel and frame

And so we thought to cut your trunk

Yet axes bounced back lame

We left without a meaning clear
For we will ever fail

And the dire wind that drove us home

Filled your autumnal sails

The only fruit, those dried up leaves

Blown from your dreary tree

We catch between a string of sighs

And crumbling ennui

II

The village spat until you moved 
To dribble on the town
The mangle of the city clamped shut
Your jaw and you drowned

Friend, you could have been the darling
Light of every shore
But you were chained up on the rocks
Before the sea's cold roar

Yet I'll drink until a mirage
Smiling comes to me
And I'm caught between a string of sighs
And crumbling ennui

The only fruit comes in a glass
That's swallowed with a grin
And the dire gale that drove us here
Blew from within.