10
April Heron
Beyond you
slow heavy beat-steady wings
beyond the pane stretch branches the overgrown apple tree laden with untamed sour-faced hardness
steely its largeness descends
a constant breeze bounces the crown a tree within a tree pulsates greenery & fruit cable roots
a curl of neck dips otherwise it’s still
wrangle under lawn under patio forcing a way through the packed clay beneath the cottage weapons-grade
silent on bamboo legs eyes water-watching both sides together until a slow bend
clusters of bramleys reach that bit further soon to be close enough to bang on glass to drop on the carpet like mini-
one web-foot lifts is placed then
monster eggs the offensive begun the fight back here and I wonder if I should wake you or is it all too late
the other as though on mud but our fishless pond throbs
John Kitchen
with newly emerged tadpoles feasting on tapioca sacs the bird’s disappointed or disturbed into unlikely flight
edge horizon stretches dry cracked
across fenland flats salt water saturate or the treachery of a tidal creek’s fill up
your elemental black skeins of wildfowl
welcome package
a rise of vapour-trail
of Raff bombing practice aerial flash & remote disquiet polished ditch mud
this not quite
thud
& a twelve-bore
or algae stain & cracks
heavyslip wellies ozone
memories
wingland
clagged edgeland
sea that too soon may be
