Warning: Dangerous Tree - written and read by Julian Bishop

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