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
Julian Bishop
Julian Bishop’s first collection of eco poems called We Saw It All Happen was published earlier this year by Fly On The Wall Press.