To all the resilient teens :3

In a forest draped in emerald light,  

Where dawn poured gold and bathed the night,  

There grew a tree, both proud and tall,  

Its branches wide, its roots held all.  

But fate, in storms with jagged breath,  

Tore through the woods with songs of death.  

The tree bent low, then cracked, then fell,  

And left behind a hollow shell.  

Yet from its ruin, frail but free,  

Clung one small branch defiantly.  

Its slender arms, though bruised and torn,  

Still clung to hope each tattered morn.  

Like a lonely teen in shadow’s reign,  

Who walked through fire, through loss and pain,  

The branch held on, though no one saw,  

It fought with faith against each flaw.  

Through rain that wept and winds that wailed,  

Through seasons when the sunlight paled,  

It stood through nights that had no end,  

Like broken hearts that learn to mend.  

And when the sun with tender grace,  

Caressed its leaves and touched its face,  

The branch began to stretch and rise,  

With fearless roots that kissed the skies.  

It clawed through stone, through thorn and clay,  

And grew unshaken, day by day.  

Like restless souls who will not break,  

It claimed the light for its own sake.  

Years waltzed by in silent flight,  

The branch now glimmered in the light.  

No longer frail, no longer small,  

It rose above the forest all.  

Now tallest in the woodland grand,  

It crowns the earth with mighty hands.  

And travelers who pass below,  

See in its form the fight they know.  

For in that branch, they find their flame—  

The spark that rises from the rain.  

And in its shade, their hearts confess,  

That even wreckage can possess  

A strength no storm can dispossess.