Rootstock

When ream meets with its grain again,
cut space hover over bond,
ink imprinting homeland touch;
just so the leopard with its spots,
but now borne with another cast –
what wealth and power and trade ignored –
its home community of myth.

Xylem, phloem to feed wood, block,
cambium where it might bark,
and words to prompt a spurt of growth,
learning, leaning, ripping yarn;
machete for the ostracised,
an axe to roots of satisfied,
and routes invading foreign climes.

Hip hop with a skip and jump,
leaping with those guttersnipes,
proving trail illicit track,
white for black, negating past;
jungle clearing, lunar bright,
not for wights or shades in fact.
So claim clean sheet and print again.