A E Baker
Loveliest of Trees
We stripped it of its half-grown cherries,
hard and yellow.
We threw the coal-place hatchet at it:
a huge Apache battle-axe
like those that Bronco Barnard hurled
all around the lovely lady
down the Rec at Kettering Feast.
We built a roller-coaster in it,
screwing the Hornby rails onto the branches
with 3” No. 8s.
We stripped its bark for woodlice
and tore its leaves off,
trapping the blue and grey striped caterpillars:
Human Cannon Balls and tight-rope walkers
for Baker Brothers’ Mammoth Circus.
We made this Tarzan swing -
an eight-foot length of six-by-two
hitched up by a rope one end
and pivoted against the bottom of the trunk -
that gouged out half a pound of sawdust
with every yodelling swoop.
We loved that tree.
Page(s) 22
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