TE20 Migrant Mosaics

Grace Nichols

In the Shade of a London Plane Tree

The kind-house provided for my face by your spirit’s shade on this summer-hot day wondering about your maple-like leaves and the rings of your age your spiked fruit-balls that display themselves like pom-poms stirred by an inaudible sway of music – a merging of Oriental plane and American sycamore – your hybrid heart at home in any condition – winter damp or heat-waving pollution – a hardy Londoner if ever there was one. Trees, how they intercede for us in their green and breathing tolerance.

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