blocks of rubble

corners & edges eroded round

bas reliefs dulled

&

adorned by jagged cracks

once the Earth’s most massive city

in its day London was a hamlet

thriving,

dying,

&

swallowed

infinitely patient arboreal adversaries

claimed the light

drilling down into cracks

making chasms

to set roots

strangler figs, literally,

strangled

figureheads

[National Poetry Month: Poem #8]