Devon Balwit’s most recent poem to appear here was “Fine Line” (February 2017)

The VOC of the Trees
By Devon Balwit

            I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak
            for the trees for the trees have no tongues.
                                                            —Dr. Seuss

Once mandibles begin
gouging leaves and stripping
bark, a tree releases

a warning stink all around.
Fixed, as they are, in place,
its neighbor trees cannot rally,

but even so, they churn out
toxins against this unseen menace.
The eaters eat less, the less

less tasty. The ruined trees
may die, but the forest lives on,
ever alert to threat.

(You can read more about VOC, Volatile Organic Compounds, here:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38727/title/Plant-Talk/)