The Plane Trees of Bukarah

And in the water, bright red koi
and marinka: the men at fifty
are Chinor, trees that grow from boys
planted here in old days by gods.
When the Arab soldiers came
and told them they must pray
they danced themselves bigger,
thicker, legs rooted in clay,
wore hats like boughs,
like their brothers the plane trees
now a thousand years old.
The slender camel raiders
who found them beneath Persia
were no match with arrows
or words, for their words were
swift like the horses they rode.
They grew in circles drawn by gods
(the poets knew ) and grow still.