Tree of Life

My love gave me a Downy rose
When I took her as my wife
To signify our shared tomorrows –
To be our Tree of Life.

We planted the rose on our wedding night;
With friends at the village green
In blossom time with posy bright
We danced to tambourine.

With God-given love our family grew
Two strapping youths; a daughter virtuous;
We farmed our land, kept cattle too –
The Good Lord smiled on all of us.

The Virgin Queen, she held the throne,
Kept us safe from the Spanish knave;
Our future bright – but unbeknown
A deathly shadow walked on England’s grave.

T’was in the fateful year, of 1563,
When deadly Plague struck our noble land;
Inhabitants of this blessed country
Destroyed by Satan’s cursed hand.

Dying families locked within their homes,
A Blackened Death of painful fits;
Prayers muttered through mouths of foam;
Corpses buried in new-dug pits.

My darling wife was the first to die
Then my sons followed her in the soil;
My daughter grieved – but her end was nigh –
She suffered, then departed this mortal coil.

Alone I survived this Plague of strife –
My kin with the Lord repose.
So I sit alone beside our Tree of Life –
And bless our soft Downy rose.