They Took the Sycamore

Two hills watched for over a hundred years
One tree stood, and held our tears
Rooted deep where silence grew
Leaves like flags in northern blue
Shadowed stone and Hadrian’s wall
It stood through wind, through rise and fall
We carved our names, we kissed beneath
Told our stories in its wreath
A single life, not ours to break
But someone came with steel and hate
"They took the Sycamore"
Not just a tree
But something time
Had let us be
"They took the Sycamore"
Now the gap runs wide
Where memory stands
And roots still hide
They laughed and said it made a joke
But nothing’s funny in that smoke
Of fallen limbs and hearts gone numb
Where whispers once and birdsong come
They stole a crown from living ground
And left behind a haunted sound
The space is wide, but never whole
Like something missing from the soul
"They took the Sycamore"
We heard it fall
The breath of stone
Broke through us all
"They took the Sycamore"
But not its name
It still survives
In grief and flame
What takes a moment, took an age
And now it leaves an empty page
A blade, a laugh, a careless sin
What grew in us they can't cut in
"They took the Sycamore"
We won’t forget
It watched our youth
It watches yet
"They took the Sycamore"
But not our hands
We plant again
Across this land
Between two hills, the wind still speaks
Of roots and ghosts and ancient peaks