Home The Four Ponies The Standoff

The Standoff

The trees come out at my whistling —
Bare-chested in flared helmets, face to face,
Branches akimbo, snags bristling;

Ramose menaces enlace
And into the road fling arms for enlisting;
And is it a weapon or is it spice, that mace,
Kernel or colonel, that you brandish, dehiscent quisling.