London Plane

[Leanne]

London Plane

My favourite trees will forever be those
that keep their nuts long after their leaves,
post-natal depression forcing their saplings -- lovely personification
out of existence and into hanging limbo.
These compact memorials to autumns past
cling to the bowed tips of their branches,
like childhood baubles placed with loving precarity
where only small hands can reach, -- great image... I have photographs from Christmases past with our tree decorated only on one side and not past halfway
or too-heavy earrings punched through papery lobes, -- "papery lobes" gives me the image of an elderly woman so I don't know that this fits especially well with "memorials to autumns past" as by this stage she's well into her winter!
over-ripe and uncomfortable.

Were I to find that form at some point in my time, -- a very good line for the volta (about-face)... this splits the poem into two distinct parts in an accomplished way
I fear I would only do the same -
hold my offspring to my chest with tight-tethered reins
that drag me to the floor with worry -- "with worry" might be a bit too "telling not showing"
whenever the wind blows too quickly for my liking,
whenever rain threatens our solidity.
I would break my own back to stop them straightening theirs,
the way my mother once did for me -
become my own gravestone, populate my own parish
with unkept promises of life. -- I like that you've used "unkept" instead of the more mundane "broken"... a strong ending

Well, tragically flawed or not, you've got some pretty good turns of phrase under your belt This was a fine read, challenging but not obtuse. Thanks for posting!