PAUL HERTELENDY

A POET'S ADVENTURES FROM THE WILD SAVANNA OF BRAZIL’S SOUTHLAND

EDITOR'S NOTE: Paul Hertelendy recently trekked into the wilderness
of Brazil's Mato Grosso de Sul. His new poems, sent to us from the road, document his travels.

THE FOREST'S PERFECT CRIME By Paul Hertelendy

The strangler fig begins its life As pithy tender vine. It crawls up on a palm It uses as a catapult to speed arrival to the canopy and sun, The forest’s lifeblood. Its arms embrace the tree with mock affection, Then with sinewed force, Like Adam’s serpent, Ever stronger, ever tighter, Tentacles entwining, encircling, choking, While its trunk is plunging roots on every side, Tough as iron, tripod-stable, Till it totally devours The tree that’s played the role of foster parent, Smothering it in killer grip Until the victim disappears Without a trace within its stems. The strangler tree grows higher, mightier, The perpetrator of the perfect crime In which the corpse from Mother Nature’s ranks of innocents Is never found. ---Pàntanal, southern Brazil, 4/24/05 AT LEFT, AN ELM TREE ALREADY IN THE GRIP OF THE VINES OF A STRANGLER FIG.   A traveller poses amid the roots of a strangler fig that already has encircled another tree.

©2005 by Paul Hertelendy. This column first posted May 30, 2005.

Paul Hertelendy is a critic with the San Francisco Bay Area arts website www.artssf.com. To visit his website, click here: PAUL

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