Warning: Dangerous Tree - Julian Bishop

One of the Top 40 submissions in our 2023 Urban Tree Festival writing competition.

Warning: Dangerous Tree

says the sign tacked to a barbed wire fence

as if the singular anger of a pollarded old oak

could be contained months after it passed on

as if the wrath of a mass plantation shackled

by stanchions and slipped into plastic tubes

could be excused, as if the rage of the lonely

front garden acer could be easily explained,

as if you could justify the lopped off limbs

of an ash desperate to bridge a tarmac span

or the indignity of topiary inflicted on yew,

cropped into outsize lollipops and peacocks,

as if being labelled scrub or urban furniture

weren’t enough or the slavery of being unable to

escape the chainsaw, the pain of being

stubbed and dehorned, your crown hat-racked

and topped, pruned wounds sun-scalded

and invaded, plagued by pests and disease,

as if a tree didn’t already hold enough rain

Trees are Poems Sung by the Wind - Rayna Haralambieva