Serpent Tree Poem by Douglas Scotney

After 21 and a bit years in the dark
I sleuthed the name of the tree out my window.

It's Radermachera Sinica,
China Doll, Emerald; Serpent too.

It's the gem for its leaves
and the viper for its long, narrow, dark, twisted pods
that writhe in profusion like a nest of snakes.

It's pretty as a doll.
Sinica means 'from China'.

Jacob C. M. Radermacher
died in a mutiny on a boat on the Indian ocean
on Christmas Eve in 1783.
I guess he was thrown overboard,
though reported as buried at sea.