OLGA MARKELOVA 1. That night all the trees in the capital city set out on a crusade – the single-footed, the many-fingered, the curly-canopied and those stripped bald, those stunted and bark-bared, those wire-throttled, and those cemented up to their…
NADIA ANJUMAN No desire to open my mouth, what should I sing of . . . ? I, who am hated by life. no difference to sing or not to sing. Why should I talk of sweetness, when I feel…
JONATHAN BOULTING DURAMEN for Nicole d’Amonville Alegría Olive acacia fig orange banana pine cypress lemon palm carob holly-oak – the truth about trees is this (in summer especially): unless, inescapable, one comes to pluck, prune or hack, their interests lie…
BILL LEWIS Apple Pickers 1940 As they work, above them a Spitfire takes on a Messerschmitt. The daily dog fights of the Autumn days of nineteen forty. The Spit like a great broken Bird comes down in the orchard. The…
Take My Hands Take my two hands make eight feet of them give them to the spider I soaked in hot water in my kitchen sink. I will hide my arms in long sleeves, will finish the last painting with…
A. ROBERT LEE Tokyo Sakura Tree Yes, it’s a Japan-icon, the nation’s postcard. Cherry blossoms. Branch-born, bud to flower. Wind-gyres of floating white-pink petal. Imprints upon woodblock, flag, coin, kimono. Even upon street manhole covers. Japan’s colour code. But, at…
MARGARET MCCARTHY THE SELFISHNESS OF THE TREES I It is the cruelest spectacle, they put on such clouds of white that allow you to believe in some endless generosity; you remember how you looked this time last year and the…
