Trees (4)

Photos: Johan Österholm

Cudgel (in memoriam to J.P.)

1
... when contriving methods of killing
various techniques are considered

2
yet one always comes back to the simplest
(to the dismay of techocrats
convinced only their goddesses exist)
a cudgel will do-
a gnarled branch

3
tree:
potential armoury for instruments of torture and murder

4
and we struggle so to preserve the forests
forgetting that
while on the face of this earth
but on tree remains
people will die by the wooden cudgel

5
pegs
jabbed under the nail
of the earth

from The Selected Poetry of Ryszard Kapuściński: I Wrote Stone.