The Secret Life of Trees

The train paused and crept
past invisible monkeys
leaping from tree top to tree top
the trees
winterstick canopies bent
waving like fronds
in a tidal pond

The earths green skin leaked
fielding brown ooze
in silvered scratches and runnels
as if the water came up
from underneath
through quicksand
on a prehistoric bay

under the trees
lie dinosaur bones
Saxon hoards
Tudor buttons,
Victorian boot hooks
and bombs dropped from Heinkels