WATCH AND WAIT

A kestrel quarters the allotment, sees

where the eye may take him.

I too find my bearings

in a wild silence of flood plain,

beyond the hum of land management.

Only the draught through branches 

for company. Its fitful swell

and waning at the disguised boundary:

always there must be lawns to mow,

concrete to lay, fences to erect

and guard. A possessed realm.

Even on this dreich day, when time goes back,

it should not be so quiet.

We only know what can be heard:

in sodden woods, where few birds call,

the scrunch of acorns trampled

softly underfoot. A rotten world

until the clocks advance once more.

 

 xi. 2023

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