on track

 

 

 where did this strange dream

get on track?

fallen leaves enfold

a figure hidden

in the long grass

by a locked hut

obscured by weeds

 

a stranger waves

then departs

 

on track

for the

cracked

waters

and pallid blue hallucination

of an autumn morning

 

deep vein

 

 

 

the story of a tree

 

Once there was a tree, planted to commemorate the arrival of a new life to this world. And it grew and it grew.

It grew so big it went over the wall to the churchyard next door. Each year it blossomed. Then the rain poured down and the wind whipped a gale. The tree split. Its roots began to rise from the ground.

  

Poor tree. It had to come down before it fell. One man climbed up, higher and higher into the branches. Ropes were attached and the chain-saw ripped into life.

 

 

 

The team of men sweated in the blistering heat as they worked on. Branches were cut, slender boughs shredded.

They worked until the tree was down and the next day we lifted heavy trunk rings across the churchyard wall. The stump-grinder came . We dug out the roots and planted another tree.

The old wood will not be wasted. A young man came round to chop it into logs. It will keep us warm as we wait for the new tree to grow.

entropy

 

 

 carry me crowned

past autumn's waiting belly

ringed with burnished leaves

and seed-heads

ready to spill

upon the cooling soil

carry me to the river

and lay my head by the water

so the weeds may rise and enfold me

in their green mantle

carry me across

to where my winter queen

lies