Term Deposit

My five year deposit rolls over this week
Producing some interest that I can now keep,
Or spend if I wish to – it flows out so fast
When compounding stops and I turn it to cash.

As tree by the river drinks long and drinks deep,
We suck up resources we find at our feet;
Converted to chattels, and groceries, and gas,
They last but a blink, then like moments, they pass.

The bigger the treetops the greater the draw;
The roots draw resources converted from raw;
When nutrient’s lacking no fruit can be seen;
Perpetual drought – then no tree trunk is seen.

When we see a human, or beaver with coat,
They're mobile, but eat like a pine or an oak;
The bigger and older they get by the year,
The more they consume whether poplars or beer.

The beaver produces a coat that is warm,
Or hats out of felt when it's processed and worn;
But what of us humans? What do we produce?
Why, goods, thought, and services – some of great use.

We humans are social, have need of each other;
We'd trade and exchange with a stranger or brother;
We pass on our excess and gain what we lack,
Or purchase a service to help with our task.

So really our mouth is like root of a tree,
It takes in nutrition, yet lets us be free;
As multiple roots on a tree can be found,
Folks draw from each other while walking around.

In order to hook up our multiple routes,
Have branches soon laden with edible fruit,
We form corporations, and partnerships make,
So working together we jointly create.

But still we are flexible, mobile, and free,
The bonds of such unions quite unlike a tree;
For trees though they bend with the wind and the rain,
Can't change their location – immobile remain.

So business is just like a movable tree –
Its parts independent, quite flexible, free;
It draws up nutrition which moves here and there,
Till fruit is produced and the limbs are not there

A tree markets fruit sitting there by the brook,
A passive approach, hoping others will look;
But people in business formation can shift,
And sell to some market that others have missed.

But why make the apples and hope the birds see?
Inside of the Apple's located the seed;
When transported off to another locale,
A new tree is started – and future bodes well.

Is that not just circular? “Grow to produce
More trees to repeat that”, so what is the use?
The use of a tree is to live – just to be
The same holds for humans – though few of them see.

For caught up in drawing resource from the root,
Or passing it on, in their business pursuit,
They make it, and market, exchange it for cash –
But seldom stand back of its purpose and ask:

Is it being? Becoming? Or tearing around?
Or drawing resources locked deep in the ground?
Marketing? Selling? Exchanging and trade?
Whatever's the purpose of all that we've made?

Then just like that tree, lightning strikes and we burn,
Or we just grow old and too late we all learn:
That “it can be fun while becoming old growth –
While being – producing – take time to do both”.

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