The Listening TreeA Poem by David Lewis PagetThere
once was a time I would wander the bush And
camp in the woods every night, Watching
the birds and the wildlife there Was
the thing that would give me delight. I’d
walk it with Jill or I’d go it alone, It
made little difference to me, But
out in the depths of the forest I found A
very unusual tree! It
wasn’t a gum or a stringy bark, A
cedar, an ash or a beech, None
of the common varieties And
neither a plum nor a peach, The
leaves were like arrows of silvery grey Aligned,
with each face to the sun, And
every so often they’d chatter, it seemed Like
the rapid rat-tat from a gun. I’d
never seen anything like it before So
I stopped, and I walked it around, The
pods full of seeds were still ripening there, And
fell, spilling seeds on the ground. Then
birds would come, feed in a frenzy and fly Their
bellies swelled out with the seed, I
wondered if nature had chosen this way To
propagate more of these trees? I
gathered some up and I took them on home, And
planted some back on the block, I
marked with a stake and I covered with loam, Sat
back to see how long it took. I
couldn’t believe it, the following day They
had sprouted up more than a yard, A week, they had towered right over my head And
I felt I should be on my guard! There’s
something not right with a species that grows From
a seed to a tree in a week, When
Jill came around and she saw what I’d found She
just stood there, unable to speak. The
silver leaves chattered each time she approached With
a menace I’d not heard before, A
leaf seemed to fly at her, cutting her cheek, And
she wiped the blood off, and she swore! ‘There’s
something rank evil in that silver tree, Can’t
you see how it’s twisting around, Those
leaves are like arrows, and sharp as can be, You
should yank the thing out of the ground.’ The
leaves started chattering madly at that, And
something was chattering back, Another
tree, just like the one I had grown, Had
sprouted, along on the track. I
called a Professor Biologist in, Professor
John Ward, M.Sc. He
wandered around it and furrowed his brow, ‘It’s
nothing like I’ve ever seen!’ The
leaves started chattering, soon as he spoke, Then
fired off a host of its leaves, They
struck the Professor, bringing him down, Unable
to get off his knees. We
called in the firemen, called in the police, They
burnt that young tree to the ground, But
then in the air was a chattering, chattering, Louder
and louder, that sound! And
suddenly, every direction we looked There
were trees with those silvery leaves, Surrounding
our houses and lining our streets Like
a plague, or some dreadful disease. We
hide in our houses and whisper our needs, For
trees have grown up by each door, A
shower of arrows are loosed when we speak So
we crawl on our knees, on the floor, They
say that the army is coming to town With
bazookas, flamethrowers and such, But
while all these trees are listening, listening, Better
we don’t say too much! We
put on the radio, turn it down low And
we listen to news on the hour, All
that they talk of are alien trees That
came down with a meteorite shower. They’re
radioactive, and that’s why they grow, So
quickly, and glow in the night, I
should have known better, but who could foresee There
were trees that could listen, and fight? David
Lewis Paget © 2017 David Lewis PagetFeatured Review
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