TREE

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As the juniper calls to me,

That is where I want to be,

Sitting high up in the tree,

Crushing berries, tenderly.

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Matmeh

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It is a call to nature, to being naturalised, to which the human responds. We note that he or she (it is a 'he' in the tree yet this poem lacks gender) nevertheless possesses that all-too-human trait of ambition, wanting to be sitting (not standing or working) and wanting to be 'high up'. The result of ambition, of success: crushing berries, destroying nature, the tenderness with which this is done just as crushing. Humanity is malevolent, bewildered and, in the visualised version of the words, also naked, bald, hopeless. The tree is, itself, two dimensional, unreal, sitting in bland isolation. The words follow the arcs and twists of the tree, emulating it (or taunting it). In its own twist, the tree might welcome the crushing of its berries, seeding the ground beneath. The human is crushing, perhaps juicing, the berries, which are poisonous at high doses and can cause kidney problems, seizures, and other serious side effects. The tree is triumphant, either way, as nature survives human devastation and greed.

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