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Michael Henry

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Urban Myths

Brown belts and black belts
look out from the judo window,
swings run the gauntlet of gravity,
little kids move on to the Flying Fox.

Bats eavesdrop upside-down from telegraph wires,
owls send each other hoot-mails.
And the Pied Piper of Redland Green
puts on his storytelling cap

and tells of the tortoise family who set off
on a picnic of pineapple, papaya and mango.
Such a Galapagos sense of perfection,
three years to find a grassy green glade,

two years while baby tortoise is sent off
to find a tin-opener. Famished while waiting
father tortoise grabs a guilty sandwich.
‘I knew you’d start without me.’

Then the children who listen lose patience,
overtaken by sleep like the hare in the fable.
And the lights go out
on their little leveret lives.

Michael Henry studied Modern Languages. He lives in Cheltenham and has published five collections, four with Enitharmon Press, the latest, After the Dancing Dogs, came out in 2008.

Page(s) 19

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