Maryann, good to know, that does help. Brian, I think that meaning is probably the last one the poet wants.

LOL! Thanks Maryann, wasn't familiar with that definition. Doubtless the out-dated colloquialism was not intended, but it does fortuitously fit the context.

very new york
 

This is a great catalogue of details about what can happen to a NY tree. It's the language that throws me off. It just doesn't sound New York and misses some opportunities.

"Cur" is a country word; New Yorkers have mutts (cf. Winger's speech on everyone in his platoon being mutts in "Stripes"). "Daily whipped offense of bike chain lacerations" just goes on forever and wants to do too much; scars from bike chains, maybe by the Chinese delivery guys, would suit. "Gall" as a verb is correctly used grammatically, but in NYC "gall" is an attitude, as in someone "has the gall to." "Box-cutter boys" sounds like a phrase dropped from "Newsies." If he's referring to scratchiti, there has to be a better way to get at it, maybe by noting what's cut into the tree. "The burning road-salt I.V. drip of winter" is another overlong metaphor which makes no sense: NY plows the streets, and if it bothered to salt Avenue D, home of many projects the salt would never reach the trees on the sidewalks because the parked cars would be in the way.

I will give the author the dumped grease, the bags caught in the branches and the broken limbs from trucks. Those are NY.

Better title: "These Two F'n Trees on Avenue D."

This goes for me, too.

The definition answered my misunderstanding as to "standing dead." Though I'm still inclined to see this as a bit of a stretch, if uncharitable, to associate death with the humans interacting with the trees. It suggests, I'm sure unintentionally, something a wee bit "eco-extreme."

Stephen,
Perhaps the poet, like the lindens, has been "transplanted" from another place to NYC, thus the variations in language.

Really good use of imagery. I don't see a lot of slant rhyme which makes cur/car stick out for me. The mixture of rough and high-blown diction is amusing in some places but threatens cacophony at times, like one of those movies where some 18th century Englishman is transported to a modern city and waxes poetic about a hot dog.

It's a bit of a shame to me that this is only the second piece with real lyric intensity, and it's done ironically.

I like the intensity and imagery, but agree the ending needs a bit of work; not sure
that "snags" works--using Maryann's definition, it makes "the standing dead" redundant,
but more to the point, N has been a real literal observer, and switching suddenly to a metaphorical
description of N is distracting. I also am not overly fond of "morn", though it might grow on me
as a condensation of the last lines desperate romantic yearning.

Martin

FWIW:

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilia

I especially noticed:

" 'In German folklore, the linden tree is the "tree of lovers.' "

I'm with Stephen regarding the diction and pacing of the first part. A lot of it "just goes on forever and wants to do too much." It feels over-elaborate and arch.

L6, as others have noted, is very metrically bumpy.

The "snags...the standing dead" kind of works for me. I like the turn to implicate the speaker (and everyone), with an inversion of the image of the trees, and the way it offers a strange word (which almost doesn't seem like one, until you think about it), then a quick definition of the word, which also expands it a little.

In the last line, I'd make it: "some desperate April morn." (Morn seems okay to me, especially if the earlier lines are tightened and made a little more pungent and punchy.)

I love the first line.