Obituary for a Frangipanni Tree

Obituary for a Frangipanni Tree (6th Oct 2022)

Woke up this morning and found a frangipanni had fallen across the pond. It was the last of 5 frangipannis planted around the pond in 2011, when the house was first built. I am sad to see it dead though I feel I did neglect it while it was alive. Wrote a little something while munching my toast. Fare thee well, frangipanni tree.

Obituary for a frangipanni tree:

Planted by the pond your roots protested

An excess of water that lingered in the soil.

You watched palms and ferns flourish while other frangipannis died, 

Did you know you were the last to survive? 

Today, you broke, unsupported by brittle branches that carried the dry rot stemming from dead roots, 

Spreading like a cancer through your skeletal frame. 

Yours was a life unheralded, a tree amongst other plants, a part of the backdrop of a green screen.

One of several, your uniqueness finally being your solitary survival over a decade while other frangipannis fell early.

Frangipannis do not like water, we knew that, hoping that somehow you’d survive. 

And you did, until today. 

And I am shocked that I cannot remember the colour of your flowers. There have been none for a long time now. 

And I am sad that you were dying all this time, and I did not know.

Thanks for reading,

Pav