Alison Cassidy - Eucalyptus Polyanthemos

The young red-box
balance on straggly trunks
beside the track
where
fourteen years ago
I lived and loved and reared
my madcap family.

Their blushing bark
is rough
and paper dry.
Their coin-shaped
leaves glint
in glaucous profusion
like blue-grey sentinels
on guard
beside the road.

A sudden childhood flash
of marmite jars
with lids nail-stabbed
and gentle beetles
hiding
from eager
grubby hands.

Alison Cassidy

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/eucalyptus-polyanthemos/