Cell Phone Tower Disguised as a Tree

Nansha, China

Spiky white tip at the top, the give-away.

Women kneel in gardens nearby, plucking weeds,

triangular straw hats on their heads,

rakes propped against real trees.

Do they feel a sizzling in the air?

Next to the tower, its false needles

a deeper piney green, real trees seem pale.

Invisible cobras burrow and slither

in the underbrush. “Be careful,” kids say.

“They see you before you see them.”

Guangdong Province,

“the most industrialized region on earth,”

gray skyscrapers pinned in line on horizons.

Everything IKEA sells is made here.

Easy to imagine the apartments’ modestly sized

interiors,

bathroom drains, steel sinks, kitchen stools,

bunks, modest light wood shelving, and the people

far from their home villages calling one another,

any way they can, between working hours,

from balconies, cupping weary hands over the phones,

calling through the tree.