Protected from the southerly

 Protected from the southerly wind

The palm tries to survive

The worst of frosts will pass

It will stay straight and spread

The wellington train will pass it

Looking into the back garden where it grows

It's deal of fame unknown

It's audience almost always the same

But number of observers always different

It shouldn't be growing there a boy said to his mother

Trees like that only grow in the tropics

His mother looked out at the trunk and fronds

Maybe it will die this winter she thought to herself

Years later when the woman had retired

her son gone to Australia

she still saw it there in that back yard, protected from the southerly