Louis perceives his eyes to be
a pair of green leaves
a yew tree’s
so he sends a knot of day-dreams
into the deep earth
to become the Sphinx.
Buffeted on waves of cosmopolitan terror
Rhoda envisions a world
torn apart
an oak cleft in the heart
so a solitary tree becomes her fort.
It is under the beech tree
that the pear-eyed Susan buries
her school-bred jealousies
then under the shade of a cedar tree
a lover ferries her sense of deficiency
to matrimonial safety.
Through the branches of the lachrymose willow
Byron’s tree
Neville peeps at Percival
with forbidden love
while the phrase-lit Bernard
who endows Shakespeare’s sonnets
with flowers
sends through layers of leaves
his literary expertise.
Clad in green
Jinny spews out her flames
over trees
which ripple with ecstasies
birches
beeches
resonant with lovers’ rhapsodies.
Grey Sparrow Journal 