Towering,

green height on blue,

scraping, climbing the air.

Each one makes its own ascent,

hair to the wind,

its own prayer.

They emerge from the greenest mass,

articulating themselves,

wilful filaments in air.

Calm, proud,

centred on their crowns,

flickering, almost immaterial.

They tremble with fear,

each leaf, each branch

a silken mane, vertical.

God's legions, poets

of discipline or of exhaustion,

brushstrokes of blue, green jaguars,

Cut-outs of water, virtual reflections,

totems of glass.