When asked about the trees

One chanted hymns from the ancient scriptures

One recited a poem

One brought a painting

One dragged a large tome of nomenclature, chronicled geographical data,
One dumped pigments resins planks shavings sawdust cord hessian cloth paper.

One scrawled down faggots coal tar diesel petrol and struck a matchstick.

One babbled woods woods woods

One sobbed

One carefully set with a smile a bonsai flower pot.

One dug a pit entered it and planted himself

Then on his branches the birds built nests, clamoured, smeared shit

in his cavities entered rats and snakes and such animals

earthworms, caterpillars, locusts, scorpians stung

ants and termites sieged

lichen spread

frost, sun, rains, winds, relentlessly harassed every day and night

Several years passed

before he realised that

to become a tree after being a man is very difficult

And meaningless

Translated by the Poet