Tree pimping

In Alma Road the council announced
That all the trees in the street would be
Cut down and replaced
With new trees.
I listened to the chainsaw
Rip into those youthful trees
And went outside to hug
A tree before it died.
Those trees had endured the smog,
Fought the concrete,
Escaped vandalism
And were growing fine leaves and flowers.
It’s just that someone wanted
The trees in the street
To be all the same.
The new trees looked guilty
As they put their roots in where
The other trees had been murdered.
They wilted and browned
Then grew big white blooms
Trying to please the sleaze
Like they had been surgically enhanced
In attempt to all look like Marilyn Monroe.
They never replaced the other trees
That were so cruelly cut down
For a uniform of blowsy blonde blooms
Prostituting themselves on the street
With their big ridiculous buxom endowments.
No one wanted them there
Except their pimp who ordered them planted.
Everyone wanted the old trees back,
The ones that gave the street variety.

Initially NO (Victoria)
From Initially NO's book Riotous favour (2013)