Tapo Meru

after days of nothing but hills of sand, the black trees appear on the horizon. 

they will always be the horizon. they are the highway of Tapo Meru.  an orchard of gargantua speared deep into the sand.

the Arboretum Infelix.

a day-traveling caravan cools in the shadows of these trees
and discovers the illusion.

they were made by men out of many smaller sycamore, 
hard as iron, that long ago had been fished from the northern dams,
and dragged to the desert by slaves.

like fingers clasped together, 
the trees were tied with the fibers of a well known river stalk 
that came with the wood from the north, 
from the rivers of the city -- retted cooked and plaited to make rope strong enough to hold the trees together.

of these trees taller than the eight towers of Tapo Meru, 
(one for each dead king),

not even the ageless inside the city can satisfactorily explain how they were stood.