The Green Man’s Lament

Through concrete forests I now roam,
Where once stood oaks, my woodland home,
My leafy face, once carved in stone,
Now watches as I walk alone.

Where are the wild paths I knew?
The secret glades where mushrooms grew?
My verdant realm of branch and bower
Now sealed beneath the steel tower.

I weep for every fallen tree,
For sacred groves no eye can see,
For ancient ways forgotten now,
As progress breaks the sacred vow.

My children turn from Nature’s face,
To screens that steal their primal grace,
While plastic flowers mock my crown,
And asphalt spreads through every town.

Yet still I whisper in the wind,
Through every leaf that’s left to bend,
In stubborn weeds that crack the stone,
In vines that claim what’s not their own.

Remember me in spring’s first green,
In forest paths, in dreams unseen,
My spirit dwells in every tree
That reaches skyward to be free.

Though cities rise where forests fell,
My power lives in nature’s spell,
In every plant that breaks through stone,
I claim what once was mine alone.

So heed my call, you human child,
And remember what was wild,
For in your blood still runs the sap,
Of ancient woods upon the map.

I am the Green Man, ever here,
Through every season, every year,
And though you’ve bound me, I remain,
Until the wild returns again.