Two Poems

Trees: A Seasonal Sequence

I

Red. For example the cherry
    prunus avium
in a patch of civic ground or suburban front garden; part of the
    blossom festival,
dawdling through passably anonymous summers. Whose
    gossipy leaves
will quieten in autumn, limp elliptical firedrops
    that hang
on a vertical axis (without wind, as though weighted). Its branches
    extend
to curve up like loop-fringed arms on a long sung note. If a breeze
    should disconnect
a leaf it seems arbitrary - they'll all go together when the tree thinks
    now
as though hold and relax of the hold were
    an act
of musculature. In fact, leaves are shrugged off with
    corklike callouses,
...