Sam Smith
Forests Now.
i) Approach. Walking.
Green is greener under a grey sky.
Whites signal to foreground -
blank sides of houses and
on paths
the petrified ice cream
of quartz.
Wind is fungal with moisture.
ii) Within Forest. Walking.
Toad’s progress is slow
camouflaged and cautious.
Silver-headed jackdaws
make back-of-throat noises.
Leafless oaks create cones of light.
Cable comes from pole to pole
down through this tame forest.
Magpie sits erect on cable
face on like a comma.
Willow buds crack open white.
Withies glow golden among
grey scabrous conifer trunks
naked along the edges of
battle-stumped clearings,
all amputations orange.
Rationalising I call
the felled and trimmed torsos
a crop.
But forests,
I feel,
should be allowed
to grow old.
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