The Oldest Tree in Mercombe Wood
Beech tree, you are an elephant,
your crumpled bark as grey as power,
glistening and irresistible
in the small violence of a shower.
Foul water lines your long toes. Our
brief bustle will not see you through.
You are the year. We are the hour.
Green in my death, I fear for you.
Alison Brackenbury
To be published in her new collection, ‘Thorpeness’,
by Carcanet in February 2022.
