a
trophy tree
named
like a parlour game or sideshow
ladies and gents, step up
and
behold the fiercest known specimen in captivity!
see its armature of spiked steel leaves
its
crocodilian hide, thick enough to withstand the volcanic fires
that scorch its mountain home, its cone-grenades primed
to
detonate every three years – yes, you may touch
but have a care, madam, have a care!
its
seeds so scattered form the staple diet of the Pehuenche
tribe
of the high Andes, for whom it is a totem
its
fossil forebears flourished for millennia in primordial forests
whose other scaly denizens it long outlived
and
for
all
we
know
it
will
see
us
out
too
Tom Scott
Tom Scott
