Tall nettles

Tall nettles

All day long we've languished in our place,
Since we like the same view from here,
Growing in clumps, sending out shoots

The earth accommodates us all, we have space.
We are not as bitter as our yellow-headed companions,
Who vanish in a whisper, no, we remain.

As the sun sways towards the day's end
The shade offers some respite
But too soon, we cry, too soon!

We have strength in numbness
Colonizing spaces that are hostile and hard
And by remaining, know our place.

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Taken from the collection
An ear to the earth
XIII

Blossom

Blossom

Brightly coloured buds are breaking out
On the magnolia like an eruption
Of blistering sores. A gentle breeze
Peels back the writhing petals

Tearing open the maroon wound within.
Their agonizing cries go unheard
As we pause, admiringly, at
The suddenness of Spring.

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Thoughts of an acorn upon waking in Spring

The breathing wind
Ripples the moist air
And ruffles leaf's smothering covering.
We stir us from under cold slumber
To warm our backs,
Face down in earth's ochre. Alone

I carry me a weighty ancestry
Yet all that is known is still my unknown.
Is it my own turn now?
Am I ready yet?
Am I?
Ready.



Taken from the collection
An ear to the earth
IV

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