The trees invented metonymy
tho' remain silent on the point.
It's our last public secrecy
ubiquitous chestnut, ash, and oak-
the creative process of self organization
in every sycamore, spruce and beech,
here a tree, in a woods of more and
(no need to admit their unpoetic
nest-building termite colony parts)
knowing better
their continuous discourse
adjacent to Norway maple population,
the streets of Philadelphia:
Cherry, Chestnut, Walnut, Spruce
play of shade trees in semantic fields
branching to a continent of trunks,
heaven of wet leaves
as contingent and accidental as wood
changing to wood
in a woods of noisy wood.

Tom Devaney
5/11/98