the live oak grove still grows

d. ellis phelps

April 5, 2026

beside the big

white house

on the hill

the live oak grove

still grows

the grove has grown there

long and sweet

so the story goes

~

some say

the grove is totally wrong

—unsightly mess that doesn’t belong

and every spring         on everything

all that green               so much green

~

bringing axes

some have come

to cut the growing grove

but the roots have spread

—have taken hold

& far from the booted tread

through mycorrhizal 

millions

underneath

rise      resilient live oak heads

d. ellis phelps is the author of five collections of poems, most recently, book of common breath (Kelsay Books, 2026).

Lordean Key:

In this poem, I use an environmental shell to protect multiple signals I wish to send. The heartbeats include an individual’s rights or group of individuals rights to exist in their own form and as a unique identity, the live oak, alongside the bureaucratic powers that be without being cut down; the fact that bureaucracies misuse their power, axes, to try to suppress and eliminate that which they deem unsightly; and the power of individuals in community, the grove, to be resilient and to continue to grow by forming networks, mycorrhizal, making unseen connections or going underneath.