Disclaimer: I do not own The Phantom of the Opera or any of it's characters. I don't know what else to say, I've never written one of these before!

Her Tree

There was a storm outside.

The thunder bellowed and the lightning flashed.

I was already a grown man, but still I jumped when I hear it.

The rain came down hard, like rice falling into a metal pan,

Clinking as they hit the surface.

A tree was struck by the lightning,

And split into two surprisingly equal halves.

Only one side died. In the weeks and months that followed,

The living side grew and bore leaves and fruit;

It went on with its life.

She loved that ill-fated tree.

When she saw what had happened, she wept openly over it.

Half of it still lives, my love! I told her with a smile.

Yes, she replied sadly, but the other half is dead!

And so the living will never be whole again.

A branch had fallen nearby.

She picked a single flower from betwixt its leaves,

And took it in to be dried and then pressed.

All our married life I caught her staring at it lovingly;

She does so still.

The dead half was sawed off.

She would sit on its stump, leaning against

The living half as she would the back of a chair

She would go there to read, pray, or just to think

For hours upon end.

I asked her once which side she loved more.

My dear, she told me, although the living side forms to my back

And comforts me, the stump supports my weight

And will continue to do so forever, even when

The other side is dead.