Tony Schanuel
the trees are hungry
they are hungry
arboreal orgy at peak consumption
this tree is famished it does not like
our restrictions knots its gape around
the railing round its gobstopper knob
vengefully files off biting edges
cushioning lines in billows of bark
this tree is gluttonous it does not like
our prohibitions serves due notice of
its resentment devours bluster and
bombast framing with a healing scar
this reduced injunction ‘KEEP’
this tree is voracious it does not like
our communications labels the post-
box ‘priority sustenance’ guzzles it
like a strawberry stick greening our
network with branchline and trunk
this tree is rapacious it does not like
our illuminations grips the lamp-
post in remorseless jaws twists it
like a sapling in a harvester till
leafy diffusions subdue its glare
this tree is ravenous it does not like
our expansions chews up fixtures that
stake our claim turn the outside in
beach-hut-blue bench buckling now
a long-established seat unsettled
the trees are hungry they are hungry
I do not know if they can be sated
Alice Stainer teaches English Literature on a visiting student programme in Oxford. Her work particularly explores place, ecology, and human relationships through nature and art, and appears in Green Ink Poetry, The Phare, 192 Magazine, Atrium, and The Dawntreader, amongst other places. She is nervously putting together her first pamphlet and tweets poetically @AliceStainer.
Tony Schanuel is an award-winning photographer and visual artist who has fused a professional background in photography, digital technology ,and painting and mark making to create fine art that transcends those mediums. His work has been featured in Digital Imaging Magazine, Computer Graphic Magazine, Wild Heart Journal, St. Louis Design Magazine, and is a featured artist in Cyber Palette and Extreme Graphics, two books showcasing digital artists and their work. He has exhibited at the Florence Biennale and his art is held in private and corporate collections including the Fine Arts Museum of Houston permanent photographic collection.