Old growth, and new

There is a grey gum near my house that stands alone in
a bamboo-forest of new development, fending off each
day strange and foreign shoots, green shoots, that rocket
from the earth propelled by nutrients unknown.

This tree – it bifurcates, and bifurcates again, and 
Oh! Isn’t it lovely to wear a crown, for the parrots
who build their lives there, look down, and laugh in
shades of irascible hue?