The landlord has cut down
all the trees. That’s only the start.

I had forgotten that life was a string
of everyday things to get done.

Footpath to school blown up,
trees one by one: a great to-do list.

Books and music I’ve loved
there along the string, a young man.

The landlords, the Zionists
have already begun to cut, it’s too late.

Children are cut, their parents gone.
Roads are cut. Hands and feet gone.

Our landlord cut down all our trees.
Olive and Fig, the grey cat has fled.

Even reading in bed is gone,
gone with the music and him, forgotten.

Gone too is string theory. Landlords
and bulldozers, thank you. Go.

Trees silently disappear one by one
in the middle of being cut.

Forgetfulness, like music loved
gone the way of him. That’s only the start.

**

Jennifer Allen is a satirical poet who lives in Brunswick, Victoria. Jennifer’s second collection of poems titled Everything Feeds It was published by Recent Work Press in March 2024.

‘The landlord has Cut’ was previously published in limited chapbook –  The Cut Worm, Precious Press, 2006.

P76 issue 9: Poetries of place/ displacement/ diaspora/ odyssey: On-line Edition. Table of Contents