Municipal Gum

 Gumtree in the city street, 
Hard bitumen around your feet, 
Rather you should be 
In the cool world of leafy forest halls 
And wild bird calls 
Here you seems to me 
Like that poor cart-horse 
Castrated, broken, a thing wronged, 
Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged, 
Whose hung head and listless mien express 
Its hopelessness. 
Municipal gum, it is dolorous 
To see you thus 
Set in your black grass of bitumen-- 
O fellow citizen, 
What have they done to us?

Email Poem |