February, Westridge Woods
(for Liz)
Simon McNulty
Email: Elizabeth.Frost@uwe.ac.uk
Woodpecker break beats
High in the mistiness
Staccato ratcheting
Saplings’ water baubles
Punctuate the catkins’
Statement of intent
Traces of ancient hedgerow
Bulk above the path
Naked boughs slicked black with rain
Bent to a purpose
In misshaped youth
Grotesque
Grown elephantine
Deformed limbs intertwine
With feet of moss galumphing
To kick up shoals of ancient leaves -
Bones of the hill caught dancing
While old man’s beard still straggles on
I turn away from home
Down gloomy evergreen nave of woods
As far as the green barred gate
I acquiesced in the shape I was given
Now how shall I grow?
©2006 Simon McNulty
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