TREE

No animal besides a human
uses symbolic communication,
and here green paint marks
the place of TREE.

Like a problem
in a geometry exam,
I’m tongue-tied
to explain the irony.

I sensed that trees
could perceive how close
their neighbours were.

Yet here our kinship is lost,
a conversion of units
where once was a tree.

Created and found during Kin’d & Kin’d Wording the Edgelands workshop at Groundwork Gallery, using Tree (photograph) by Nicky Hurst https://www.groundworkgallery.com/events/wording-the-edgelands/; Philip Ball, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/11/animal-magic-why-intelligence-isnt-just-for-humans; Suzanne Simmard, Finding the Mother Tree, Allen Lane, 2021