Ballooning green leaves rush 
From the fingertips of nature’s hands
Like fists piercing the earth 
A passage between earth and sky 

A poplar blows side to side 
Like a nervous child in the school line 
Skinny and taller than most 
She listens with her patient eye 

That hornbeam bully 
Who snatches your lunch 
Is fatter, no wiser  
Even if it hurts  
  
Sweet chestnut you don’t know who I am
Or who I’ll become 
So I’ll love you from a distance
And that’s ok 

My leaves will still tremble on hollow twigs 
But like a true Birch
I will find my journey to the sky
And leave this earth

Food
Not ideal 
Grown in the ground  
Bred on land   
Let me eat light 

That is what plants do 
With their arms out wide
Like a junkies injection 
They skip meals
To eat light 

Maybe somewhere out there
In the Andromeda 
Maybe they are dancing
Eating 
Light 

Crazed species 
Energised life forms  
High 
on 
light 

No middleman 
No supply chain 
No hurt 
Eating 
Light 

He 
Says 
Eating 
Mini
Cheddars

Longing 
For when 
We took that walk through private land  
Got in trouble with farmer man 
Mischief  

Longing 
For what
Scooters from school and toast at home 
Racing bikes with Harry in tow 
Time 

Longing 
For her
Purple hair and battered coats 
Fountain pens and written notes
Mum 

Longing 
For it 
Im bigger now and older too 
Important stuff for me to do
_

Down that narrow london street 
Music from the clouds pierce through a workman’s vans
Showering light vibrations into my ears 
Transporting me to you

We can’t see it but we feel it 
Classical songs from the ages that suck us in 
And spit us out 
That hurt us and heal us

He loved this music 
Whenever I dropped in 
To the house 10 degrees too hot for humans 
He’d be sitting there, listening 

As if a message was tangled in those notes 
Just for him 
Suspended in mid air 
That only he could hear

Now the dusty street spits its truth 
Transported for one fleeting moment 
I’m landed back on both feet 
Better finish this cig

I can hear her
Singing to the radio in the autumn kitchen 
The tap roars on and off  
Dishes clang
As my mind wanders 

Sat under a blanket 
I turn off my own music to hear hers 
I let my heart check it’s own pulse 
At once, I’m in both rooms 
Clinging to this moment before it slips

I am the tool from an early age 
Twice the size of a human hand 
An archeulean mystery that carves and cuts
I am a cats tongue

The Greeks called me a Thunderstone 
A lightening bold dispatched from Zeus
How romantic 
How untrue 

Pear shaped or ovate 
Edges sharper than a barbers blade 
My maker could not stomach me 
My ferocity lost in soft hands 

I was never used to good effect 
Yes, humans made me 
named me 
But they could not tame me 

The first tool of humanity 
Trial and error 
A failure 
Yet I was not the last 

Stone gifts from the Oldowan
Flakes of rock on a brute hand axe 
A hammer to land a heavy hit 
A knife to cut flesh 

Human energy channelled 
Human tooling born 
And now you rely on glass and silicon 
A thunderbolt from the clouds …

These modern cat tongues 
Don’t cut above the skin
Their edges are deeper
Handle with care

A peacock may be flashy and LSD bright 
Her glow will turn your mind to wonderful sins 
Soft feathers bouncing in an oversized gay 
Flamboyant for all to envy 

When I gaze at her it makes me sick 
So far removed from efficiency and clarity
Natural selection has not found its truth 
She has withstood the fair hand of nature 

Our logic has mistakenly granted a wide birth 
Why not a finch of delicate touch 
That bird of subtly, carved in reality  
Must I endure

Oh this selfish beast 
Beauty is her trap and I her victim 
No more I say 
Your inefficiency is my deepest regret

A web spun from instinct 
Decades of practise with nothing to show 
But existence maintained 
A blood line upheld  

What has it taken to survive 
Other than the courage 
To sit and wait 
As the hours fade 

Waiting and waiting 
For innocence to stumble 
Into your web of lost time
Into your clutches of death 

…

And it’s broken 
That misty white thread
Meets its own demise 
In the hands of a wading gardener 

I did not recognise your strife 
My innocence took your home 
Now you rebuild 
As you always have

May I sit with you 
Get caught in your web of patience 
Fall into your clutches 
Ready for our next meal 

I can feel them talking in their new world 
In the clouds that echo above the sky
Silently, my mind floats up to call on them both 
Silently, I watch    

I don’t know why I feel close to the dead 
To grandparents who left in years past 
Maybe the anxiety and pressures of earth fade 
Maybe we are unshackled from the forces here  

Up there, time doesn’t move so fast 
But it’s not slow or dull or dead 
A peace that breeds our truest love  
At peace with the deceased 

I used to think 
This soul of mine had an older nature 
My gasping for air in youth 
Found maturity early 
It wasn’t real though

30 feels like 13 
Souls wrapped in flesh work different 
My warm cheeks age 
And skin stretches
Yet my soul stays on

Like gliding to a never ending stop 
One gear for the trip 
My souls clock doesn’t tick 
It started old 
and will end young