Unheard

 

The train passes regularly, noisily, greedily

The widow’s concerns unaddressed

 

The hands judder round, silently now

No hour by hour alerts, or second by second reminders

As time will run out

 

The blanket sky hides the progress of the sun

Rivers deepen, glaciers evaporate, tinder scorched

Changes unremarked, til compressed condensed concentrated

Natural evolution animated to trigger

Accelerators released

 

Bones calcify, follicles fade,

Senses strain, the fountain runs dry

The widow sleeps at peace

Windows closed to the passing trains

The clock still counting down

 

 

Anarchy in a small town

 

 

Some seized the bank, until the cash was spent

Some seized the bakery, until the flour ran out

Some seized the pub, a short-term solution

The suppliers would not restock

 

Some appropriated the library

In quiet, without a single crossed word

In broad daylight, uncontested

 

And they read the books

And spoke out the poems

And acted out the plays to each other

Until all’s imagination was fit to burst, freshly every day

 

The doors were opened,

To let in the poor, the hungry and the hungover,

And we read together of economics and cuisine and medicine by day,

Replenishing their losses,

And fables and ghost stories and prayers by night,

Adding to our wealth

 

The only rules were don’t misfile the book that feeds you

Nor crease nor tear,

And always use a bookmark

For while books are just paper and words are just letters, and letters just shapes on a page,

Facts are facts, opinions are opinions and flights of fantasy are real indeed to those in the reading.

 

When we are brave we will go back out and work out our place in the world

But always come back to this our library of thoughts and knowledge

Machinery of Production

 

 

All hands to the pump

All flying beasts to the fields, the trees, the hedgerows

the invitation of spring

To match-make furiously

And weave a pattern of fertility

 

Here comes the summer of the good hard work

The labours of production

 

Capture the urging sun in cells

Roots reach reach

Draw nutrients and drink

Every plant filling to burst

 

Stalks shoot up like adolescents

Fields sway like a thousand dancers

The wheat tans gently

Fruit sweetens and blushes ripe

Heat and sun, sun and heat

Balanced by the climate’s showers

 

Spring flowers overtaken

By rosettes and buttonholes

Peony, rose and hollyhocks

Summer’s wedding flowers

 

A spirit of growth and grace

A blessing of the fruits upon the people

The harvest will be abundant

joy of collaboration, cooperation

hearty effort all

 

These slowly shortening days of light

Of heat and growth and swelling

A festival of red gold green love

nature fulfilling its ancient calling