eight hundred years ago
			he towered fully
	three four times beyond
		today’s conservative hunkering
			and no rise betrays 
		which way his topspine toppled. 
for centuries that kingdom 
	of beautiful decay 
		became a catacomb swale
	an off-contour hollow burrough— 
		majesty rematerialized
			by brother roots 
				for the furthering— 
		its ceremonial braid 
			woven into legendary bird nests.
				now epiphytes nuzzle 
			the soft cradle of old fracture 
	offering unheeded advice— 
		warming the whispered ear
			while infant trees 
	sprout through combed-over hair.

pōhutukawa stretch in chorus over void
locking elbows in shallow dirt.
they rubber neck round headlands to wink at relatives beyond.
their flowering schedule:
some years rowdy others coy
sometimes none.

improbable fretless crenellated necks lean whiskered into precipical space—
reaching tremor free over driving brine strutless toward moonrise.
early evening light drips gather on matte leaf.

the structure of staying put cranes
counterweight constrictors burrow—
ground yields to gripping below
and depleted boulders cleave.

acquiescing giants tumble from above
to bolster intertidal rockspace
landing amidst mollusks chancing sun over snapper—
their bent complexities sanded
in mute testimony
to the beautiful choice
of edge dwelling.