Frogs
Do you think that it is possible that we are frogs boiling in water?
Not noticing how our windscreens are no longer bug splattered on balmy summer evenings
Not noticing how our waking hours are more spent on screens than with soil beneath our fingernails as we plant seeds in mulch and gather the fruits … Read more
‘…Your one wild and precious life?’
It is a Tuesday and I have cleared my diary so that I can work in the garden with the man who knows trees.
‘It’s 2/2/22’ chirps the fruit and veg man and we both wonder if we will live to see 3/3/33, what difference will 11 years make.
‘Tell me, what is it you … Read more
Cars
Big cars
small cars
four wheel drive
or two.
Coffee cup holders middle or side
heated seats and steering wheel too.
Which make or model?
Too much choice
eco, hybrid,
second hand
or new?
‘When we leave home will you do what old people do?
Buy a really expensive car
because you don’t have … Read more
Deep time
We are sitting in the dimmed lights, feet on warm pine floor, in a circle,
watching the flickering screen of home spun film from long ago,
(or not so long,
depending on how long you’ve lived,)
watching children like ours,
and parents like us,
playing with these cards,
this tree house,
running around this garden,… Read more
Two worlds
We are walking.
We both see a dead rabbit in the road.
I exclaim and want to move it,
you step in first.
You step in
and kick it to the kerb,
I hurt.
You pick it up by the tale,
fingers protected in a plastic bag,
and let the dogs sniff it… Read more
When a child leaves home
Here are my boys,
walking away,
in their own world
of words I do not understand.
Where I used to lead,
I follow,
whistful, watching,
distanced from the world they march into.
Then the eldest carries on walking,
until he leaves home
and
I am left floating in rivers
crying,
empty
adrift
alone.… Read more