––––•(-•The Devil's Pollard•-)•––––
Great angelic civic trees
cropped into Ys and Vs
to accommodate the powerlines appear
now that their leaves are sheared
as the wings (rather than horns)
of a dilemma, a diptych.
It's the realpolitik
of utilities—saying the powerlines
must be accommodated and therefore
either nonaction
is out of the question
or finding solutions to aesthetic injury
is too costly
(that the injury is more than aesthetic
and may weaken the tree is thought
a small but acceptable risk)
and therefore we have come to the tip
of one wing—
we'll argue no more: the other wing
is the bard naming
the devil's pollard.
Great angelic civic trees
cropped into Ys and Vs
to accommodate the powerlines appear
now that their leaves are sheared
as the wings (rather than horns)
of a dilemma, a diptych.
It's the realpolitik
of utilities—saying the powerlines
must be accommodated and therefore
either nonaction
is out of the question
or finding solutions to aesthetic injury
is too costly
(that the injury is more than aesthetic
and may weaken the tree is thought
a small but acceptable risk)
and therefore we have come to the tip
of one wing—
we'll argue no more: the other wing
is the bard naming
the devil's pollard.
