Kiss me with liquid gold, in my green magnificence
For I am the dappled pillar that holds the fluttering roof aloft
Run sunlight fingers along my green silken limbs,
That have held the strength of thousands for these many years

A green monarch to hold sway in the land of shade and brilliance
A tower to hold the ceiling of sweet transience
A rule that will span three hundred years
Three hundred turnings of the wheel that carries the world through time

Naked and unclothed I stand in the winter storms
Stone may yield to frost in Earth's bone cracking cold
Snow has fallen these winters I have known and weighed heavy
And bitter rain in the teeth of the Northeast wind

Three hundred times I have set my flags to the breeze
And with deep fingers I have drunk the precious Earth
The story of the land is rich within me
Now sunlight of the new wheel makes shadows skitter in the forest

I stand on the hill above the dry valley scourged by summer sun
The pennants of last year are turned to dust as in silent heat they parch
Beneath my spreading arms you will rest your weary feet
Beneath you I drink, as you cannot for dark Earth gives me succour

I have seen you take your harvest home, your toil well rewarded
I stand in silent witness to you and the shortening days
The air and Earth, grow cold and the soil refreshed by autumn rain
Wind takes my withered standards down; my fingers touch the clouded sky

And now the wheel turns again, and I will suffer the cold
Yet I know I will stand many years to come
Your lives are short but we are kin you and I
My mother is yours we sprang form the same womb