Rings

Ring number one, I live for the sun
"It's my life or yours!" I tell everyone
Columns of sunlight, we can't share it all
Just lost my first leaf, I hope I survive my first fall

Ring seventeen, now I'm on a team
The saplings surrounding are family I deem
Nomads then gathered on top of the hill
Soon after night, blood would spill

Gunshots rang out by the morning sun
Men on their horses would kill everyone
Warrior fled from the scene of the crime
Bloodied and bruised, almost out of time
He pulled out a locket of one he held dear
And stuck it into a hollow right here
He fell to the floor for he could not survive
But I'll keep his dream, I can keep him alive

Ring fifty-two, the tried and the true
I stand among elders with eagles in view
Watching those birds fly into the sky
"I want that view! I'll grow 'till the day that I die!"

Ring ninety-nine, now I'm out of time
The fires approaching will soon take what's mine
What you see now is a stump on the ground
My story forgotten, no way to keep it around