All those feathered aeroplanes and furry cars.
Those brightly-coloured shops to lure the bees.
Those hedgerow supermarkets, puddle-bars,
Mole underpasses, rat-runs, B-road streams
And, beneath the single sky we share with them,
Those magnificent cathedrals of trees.

It too has (reedy) banks and towers (of fir),
Has (fish) schools, (nut) stores, libraries (of leaves);
Has (bug) hotels and dance troupes (in the air),
A very busy nightlife (though obscure),
Setts, gambolling and fun(gi), (morning) choirs,
Hunters and green consumers, and (magpie) thieves.

It too has times of growth and of stagnation;
An annual snowscape and production freeze
Make way for new green spaces, start-up plants,
Nest-egg investments, bold duckling flotations,
Apple developers opening new branches
And windfalls from the damson factories.

All those earthy tiny twiggy twisty tangles:
Ant-grid-squares, the mycelium internet,
Barbed bramble wire, punk hedgehogs under threat,
Heroic micro-cleaners, non-concrete cows;
All those inhabitants of the non-concrete jungle
Of that city that’s as marvellous as ours.