at the margin II


Behind hedge, in sheltered hollow.

wind-blown drifts of snow resist

reluctant February sun; thin

as temper of impatient crows:

who, raucous with their clamour, in

early courtships black persist.


And blurry through a rat-tat-tat

of rain splattered, upstairs screen;

descending down a darkened shute,

a bare fingered clasp of trees: that

vanishing point where branch and root

disclose fern’s defiant green.


1986

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