You brought us here,
To your cold damp islands,
From other islands,
Where they they gave us 689 names,
Because you thought we were beautiful,
You thought we were stately, handsome and fragrant,
We were a symbol
Of your far stretched hands,
Of your nightless arms,
Gathering jewels
From all corners,
Himalayan Balsam, Rhododendron, Water Deer, Mandarin Duck, Ring necked Parakeet, American Mink, Grey Squirrel…
At first we were frightened,
But you gave us a home,
And we settled,
Welcomed by the burnt soils,
We thrived, grew strong.
We thought: what can we give to this scarred land?
We heal the grey dirt along your tracks, ditches, canals,
We stabilise and give thicket homes to small beings,
We feed you! We give you medicine!
We give you soups, crumbles,
Streamed treats,
In your hungriest times,
We flower for thirsty bees,
Fruit for starving birds,
We burn for cold humans.
But then the shouts come:
Green Japanese devils! Invasives! Destroyers! Scourge of habitats! Foreigners! Monsters! Enemies of Britain!
But why?
Not once have we killed,
endangered or made extinct,
Not once have we poisoned, uprooted or segregated,
So who are you really shouting at?
With whom does the blame for the dying truly lie?
And if this is how you treat us,
with toxic sprays and curses,
Then we only wonder at how you treat your own kind…
But now your actions are making your wounds visible,
We can see you on your high seat,
Flinching at the mud,
Ordering, fencing, designating, killing us, the birds, the mammals, the insects, your own children…
And we watch for the ones who fall,
Who can’t keep up with the senselessness,
We catch them,
Wait for the opening eyes and ears,
Let them hear our music and stories, taste our flesh,
And watch them realise,
That these stories are theirs too.
You humans are not lost,
More and more wake up in our roots every day,
And the more you spray and hack,
The more resilient we become,
And our vengeance will only be in our sharing of refuge,
For you in your time of awakening and grief,
For we are plants,
And we only know
How to give.