Ode To A Winter Tree: A Poem

In honor of poetry Friday, I present the poem that won the Bonnie S. Baker Creative Writing Award at Valley View Intermediate School in 1976:

Ode to a Winter Tree
by Mitali Bose

Her scraggly arm is a silhouette against the winter sky,
The claw that scratches the empty air echoes her lonely sigh,
Gone is the warmth of green foliage that covers with sweet embrace,
She prays and pleas for blossoming buds to shelter her ugly face,
Her only answer is the callous snow that tries to bury her grief,
And slyly swallows the warmth that is left like a cold and sneaky thief.

Note #1: I was living in Pleasant Hill, California. It never snows in Pleasant Hill, California.
Note #2: There were only six other entries for the contest.
Note #3: The Bonnie S. Baker Creative Writing Award always adorns the wall of my writing space.