Pray tell, thee, wise tree
how many lives have you seen
crushed beneath the human weight
staved off for their meat and desk
your tenants and their housing whole

Oh, dear, wise old tree
pray tell us truth with glee
who’s the vainest of us all
the one who orbits in space
taking away praise medallions
giving back footprints of carbon
or the one making firewood
felling earth from her roots
for a week’s worth of meals

Ageing, waning, wise tree,
how many times have we seen
heroes emerging on the face of the earth
biting the poor and sucking the wealth
to be rich and famous, at the cost of all