DEATH TO THE GREEN MAN

(Enter Green Man in chains and Grog with stage axe}

NOEL
I am the tree who has no voice
Hark ye me and make your choice
This green bard is my agent he speaks for me
I have no tongue I am a tree
The clown Sel it's told has sold off the Knowle
The toads
And I am being taken to the scaffold
Sil's statutes permit I may speak my last words in this play
My last words are all I am allowed to say

See now this Green Man in chains
And hooded Grog the executioner
Not him truly to blame
For next to him stands sly Sel the clown
~ he thinks clown means crown
Who of me has washed his hands
And I am being led
Down to the execution ground

Please I bid
Stop not your children's ears for fears
This same story is disguised each night
As nursery rhyme
Such crimes! Forsooth
Ask Jack and Jill
They know the truth

SEL
(consulting book of statutes}
Sorry about him, he's likely to go on
There is no clause in here that says that it's wrong

GREEN MAN
Remember me the tree
We declined with your industry
Were cindered for your machines
Chopped down for your warships
 ulped for your propaganda 
Uprooted for yor roads
Torn and traded from the Tropics for toilet paper
And in my case, sold off to the Developers 

Long back my memory goes
Through many ages of man
And long before you began
Oh how unscrupulous you can be
Compared to the high boughed tree
Who do we harm
What do we malign
Hurting each other is not 
How we spend our time
We are gentle and strong
And live for quite long
~ Not as long as the stone
They have more knowing
Being an older thing
But we bring you breath
For in green we get dressed
It's called photosynthesis

The tree is your friend
Without us you end

 For us it is so weird
That this usually falls on deaf ears
You have gotten used to the convenience
And forgotten about trees
Like me
By the way, my name is Noel
And the way things are going
Looks like I'm going to loose my head 
This clown Sel has really gotten it in for me
And he has charged me with 'Obstructing the path of progress'
There is not much a mute rooted tree can do 
Up against the Clown Court
I'm caught

However by fair chance I met this wandering poet
Who chose to plead my case
And mighty fine he looks
In green tunic with leaves all a curling
From his face
Curious how my voice emerges from him
He took the time to let me in
It seems that as a tree~man
I present a legal stumbling block for Sel
As some stipulation of law requires
A public enquiry
Hear my truth and plea for freedom
So though in chains I have the chance
With my testimony in defiant stance
To tell of my life that you might know
The mind of a tree named Noel 
Something sparkling in your mind's eye
Defined before you also die
No air will carry humanity's last cry
I guess it would be quite sad
But no one would be here to have such feelings
Yet the mystery of life might still provide a surprise
And I would suggest it wise
To be attentive to this tale
Cncerning me
And this sale of land
By the clown Sel
Land he says he owns
By laws he decreed
Requiring prompt removal
Of Noel said tree
For the development company
Unfortunatly for Sel
I won't budge for authorities
Especially those paid to kill trees
So here standing in chains
I presently remain
Until this play ends
And we've  said what we're saying 

GROG
My name is Grog
And a gardener once I was
~ all a long time ago now
Long long ago
But not as long as stone or tree
Noel was old when I was young and free
Mine are the tears that now fall
Sel has trapped me in his paper walls
The illusions of an official charlaton
But what is a clown that thinks he's a king
A clown
But I have got caught in a fix by his tricks
He is not what he seems you know
Long ago, yes long ago
That was when he first appeared
And put a grey to old Grog's beard
It was in the darkening time
I signed my name on the line
To work for him what a fool!
I became his evil tool
The contract I had not full read
Later I was to learn such dread
I was bound hard and in thick
Oh why did I ever sign it
I was to chop down that garden fast
And to take up the axe for another task
My master had risen in fame
Sel the clown a well known name
He ordered through new laws
That I had never heard before
A regime that on nature wars
Fool that he is he has fooled you all
Now my job is to execute
Those that Sel prosecutes
For living in a way
That does not suit his aims
For blatantly he dupes on a daily basis
Wearing a variety of faces
Oh how we are taken in
Each day the evil clown wins
Here he comes now
 I'd better get to work
He goes berserk when I shirk

SEL
Ah, at last, it's my turn
I knew you couldn't wait
I am the King and you have learned
To obey my whim without debate
Each and every day I con you straight
And you endorse my image false
By  paying taxes for my dodgy wars
As I outlaw all protests
And lamentations at my percieved faults

It is a clever law I use you see
That comprise my magic 
(And if you believe this magic
Then you are a fool as well}
The letters are beguiling
Their binding supreme

There are landmines in this language
Hiding there unseen
Booby traps in every clause
Cluster bombs of callous laws
Barbs embedded in words you thought you knew
That hook you in and drag little you down
It's all legal, or so you think
One small slip you're in the clink
Grog there!  ass me my crown
And place it on my Kingly head

(Grog produces a crown~like jester's hat 
and places it ceremoniously on Sel's head}

I feel officialdom coming on strong
For true my bile is rising at the sight 
That here is presented my eyes to blight
The full force of the law must fall
On this miscreant so green and tall
You! Tree! On your knees

(Green man does not comply}

Oh make him do it Grog

(Under these orders, Grog pushes Green Man to his knees}

I never did see 
Such an unseemly tree as thee
You know your charge green scurge
How insolent is he
Crawl like a little worm

(Argh he won't do it for me}

(Sel gestures to Grog who pushes Green Man
further onto his chest to lie on the ground. Sel comes over
and places one foot on Green Man'}

Come insolent tree
Come fortuneless tree
Come tell me you are sorry

Who must understand me
^ ronounce in truth you are a tree
That stubbornly stood in front of me
The path of progress will not wait
Heed to the law, bow to your fate


GREEN MAN
I do not squirm at your command
I see through your deceptions charm
I can never understand you
i am the underlying truth

(Sel looks around nervously and removes his foot 
from Green Man's chest}

My case is none you will recognise
I merely stood 
Lawless save to Heaven's eyes
You have consulted my case in your statute books
And may call to these people 'The Traitor! Look!' 
Yet I will walk to your chopping block 
My greater life is beyond harm
And yours the stifled yet greater pain

I comprehend such words you speak
Though surely their correctness leaks
My case is one that you will never overlook
It is that my body was pulped for your lawbooks
You stood on me with your foot it's true
Yet my stature does never stand under you
Or 'under stand' as you would have me say
In your secret language which is your way
Of spell binding deception that could even seem kind
I shall never bow to your mind
As I am tree and man so you are ass and fool
Such is the law taught in your school
I have heard much of this legalese
That it isn't legal really

SEL 
I think we've heard quite enough
(This tree is calling my bluff}
You are putting on a show
(How much more does he know}

It is understood that the accused 
Never did make a bow
When apprehended by officers 
Of the Clown

OBJECTOR
Objection!
The Noel Tree has made plenty of boughs 
As is evidenced by those spreading 
Upwards from his body 

SEL
That this accursed tree never bowed
But remained and held his head proud
When asked to remove his person forthwith
From his locale in the woods where he was hiding out 
With others of his kind. Also
That the tree took to this human agent
For to provide a voice
And present the people of this here town 
With a choice
Such audacity is beyond what is permitted
For a mere product of nature
Over which Man has been granted dominion
He must be cut down because he is my minion to command 
And there is no arguement to counter
Except this mock trial so deserving 
The full penalty of execution
All upon the condition, naturally
That people must vote favorably
To complete my plan
To cut off the head of this maverick Green Man

Ladies and Gentlemen you are the common jury
^lease now lay your vote
On the issue of death and removal 
Of this lowly tree
This anachronistic misery
From a world where there are no healthy machines
He won't understand
He must move on
You can clearly see he has no case coherant of his own
So to the chopper he must be going

(The voting hat is taken round by Grog}

The votes have been taken
We're giving them a good shakin'
But as it's all rigged anyway
It doesn't matter what you people vote
'Cos I'll just set Grog on your throat
The tree's said his complaint
Now shut up unless you want the same

Ok get on with it Grog

(Grog leads Green Man to the block and beheads him
Green blood sprays out 
Grog holds Green Man's dismembered head aloft}

SEL
Ha ha, see he's not one of us anyway
Look at the horrid colour of his blood

(Green Man gets and puts his head back on}

GREEN MAN
Ha ha! For though I die I rise
So what to your clown enterprise
Death to the Green Man is naught but a short sleep
Till up again his spring duties he has to keep
Have you not heard of Sir Gawain the Green Knight
When he beheaded the Green Man, what a fright!
Green Man took his head and stood up again
Demanding the head of Sir Gawain
Ha! Ha! I'm coming to get you

Green Man chases Sel, Grog joins the chase


                          THE END