In Xapurí
70,000 seedlings
dried and aired in open crates
were smuggled out
in 1876.
A chance encounter
with an empty vessel
the SS Amazonas
(“Liverpool to the Alto-Amazon direct”)
conveyed the precious shipment
across the width of seas -
the first of the few in the gardens at Kew
to thrive in other lands.
Their fathers diversified
into plant leather
-sheets of cotton coated in rubber-
smoked and vulcanised
for the facture of shoes.
Their struggle for survival
was censured from the news.