You Will Accuse Me of Sentimentality

 …As I stand

here caressing the new leaves of the chestnut tree

and marvelling at their delicacy and perfection.

The tree does not put out just one

or five or ten to make the shortlist for the New Leaf Award

but hundreds and indeed thousands, and every one of them

with an equal precision and subtle colour, and this astonishing texture.

So too does every tree in the avenue – 

I was about to say, “unsung”, but here I am

singing it, as best I can, and paying homage

to what my bizarre species, determined to be unsentimental,

is about to destroy forever.