Tamarisks

  
Having very many branches 
(Tamarix Ramosissima)
       
  All transmission runs under 
  these branches but none runs 
  through the branches 
  cut down in a gulp of fear.
 
  They cut back the bushes
  to foster native diversity 
  to make gay sex more visible and so
  dissuade through visibility.
  
  Contact trace and itemize 
  the local Sussex species
  to be supplied by an 
  internationally renowned seed bank
  
                      These are deep cuts, and so abstract! 
  
  A city seeks a locally sustainable tree strategy and
  geolocation cuts through any canopy.
  It grows back faster if unbroken 
  skin lays direct on mucus membrane.
  



Even more branches 
(Tamarix ramosissima)
       
  The roots are deep so you can slash 
  but they’ll come back. Are we rats? 
  No, we’re with the rats, who don’t mind 
  but aren’t us – we don’t half mind them. 
  They are the rankest price of privacy. 
  One is ducking under,
  Another peacocks round,
  Someone finds themselves intemperate
  and tests a shout out on the rats: BOO
  they chirp and make the branches shake.
  Whatever some bullshit queer ecologists might say,
  they’re not like us but do provide us cover.
  When botanists rule, all hell will break loose from shallow roots.
  Trample down the shoot, petals in my hair, or bugs 
  stuck to the undercarriage of every idiolectic genius.




  
Four Ways 1 (Tamarix tetrandra)
  
  One of many called “salt cedar”
  Too short to cover filthy feeders
  I’ll marry him never, dear reader,
  “It’s so salty Timmy” —
                                  — sings Kim Deal, as The Breeders
  
  
Four Ways 2 (Tamarix tetrandra)
 
  my neck is tight but my man is big
  down the bog down the pond: a moss green stick
  take a hit like a marriage just brush it off quick
  my neck is tight but this man is big 
  
  
Four Ways 3 (Tamarix tetrandra)
 
  Four stamens, four pens, four reasons for men
  to pair up to pass by to run off to make five
  to share with a peer for feedback
  for men need reasons for stamens to fall.
  
  
Four Ways 4 (Tamarix tetrandra)
 
  Verse forms shan’t have stamens:
  No proper sex is theirs.
  Now take care not to ruin it all 
  by going off in pairs.