Still

If a peeling streak of lightning

came rippling towards the crown

of some great and ancient oak tree

rooted to a grassy mound

and if with sublime majesty

that tree came toppling down

would it even let a whisper out

if no one was around?

And would the after rumbles

echo through some sleepy town

where crying little children

huddled from the hellish pounds

of a Heaven flushed with anger

and a spite that knows no bounds

that a tree which lived 300 years

could fall without a sound.