(For the recent casualties of University of Ibadan’s Heritage Park)
We bleed when cut
We are the Trees of the World
We are the Trees of the Life
We laugh, we cry, we whisper, we shout
We breed, we brood, we breathe
We carry the Planet in our careful hands
A tender burden, historic task
The loom and latch of a naked world
We robe the Earth in our green embrace
Hour by hour we lose our kin
To waste, to war, and the senseless blaze
Read Also: CBN reforms support strong, resilient African financial architecture – Cardoso
The careless axe, the haughty chain saw
And the cannibal greed of the rich and strong
Behold the Spider Monkey and the Spectacled Bear
The Butterflies, the Forest Crabs
The Eloquent Parrot, the Sagacious Owl
The Cool Canopy and the Travelling Roots
A Tree never falls alone in the forest
It takes our Future with the crashing leaves
The blind gold-digger, the reckless farmer
Subject your greed to the Need of All
We are the Trees of the world
We are the Trees of the Life
Pearls from the Past, flowers of the Future
We burn when ignited, we bleed when cut
We are the vital lobes of the lungs of the Planet
From Green: Sighs of Our Ailing Planet , Black Widow Press, 2021