Page 16 - 2022 Kaleidoscope Volume 8
P. 16
The Trees Are Down
by Charlotte Mew
GROUP A (Senior Middle 2 & Senior Middle 3) Champion
Recited by Woon Jia Yee (180014) 5S Zhong
They are cutting down the great plane-trees at the end of the gardens.
For days there has been the grate of the saw, the swish of the branches as they fall,
The crash of the trunks, the rustle of trodden leaves,
With the ‘Whoops’ and the ‘Whoas,’ the loud common talk, the loud common laughs of the
men, above it all.
I remember one evening of a long past Spring
Turning in at a gate, getting out of a cart, and finding a large dead rat in the mud of the drive.
I remember thinking: alive or dead, a rat was a god-forsaken thing,
But at least, in May, that even a rat should be alive.
The week’s work here is as good as done. There is just one bought
On the roped bole, in the fine grey rain,
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