Ginkgo

oh ginkgo,
don’t let your heart go again,
stay green this fall
when all that change begins,
when winter brings
the ways of death
to strip you of your skin,
my tree of butterflies,
with cocoons of broken sin,
know the ways
that Jack Frost lies
on night’s before his win,
soak up the warmth you can,
you must, or he will do you in,
oh, my ginkgo
whatever happens in the end,
come green or yellow,
leafless storm,
you’ll always be my friend.