June English
Winged Fruits
The Arbutus sheds its bark in winter, not its leaves
1
What can I tell you of Canada?
My tongue can't cut grooves in wood,
well not since the Arbutus tree shed
its bark and my heart hit the ground,
grovelled in mulch, was tramped on, shred
by a combine harvester, stock-piled
for the granary. A winter loaf, sliced,
frozen in a bright package, stamped:
'Free of additives'.
So, when apple blossom perfumed May
and the Oregon wore virgin white
there was no warmth, no rebirth bloom,
for we were out of song, off key.
You lied love's old, familiar tunes.
It takes a bee to sting summer.
I wasn't ready for the shock,
the panoramic blues and greens
of thawed lakes and sudden streams.
So, later, when we crossed the Rockies
to eat our fill of Saskatchewan gold,
it went against the grain.
2
In England now;
my tongue cuts deep into Bird's Eye Maple,
spoons out sugar, tastes the honeyed
splendour of the leaves, absorbs
the sweetness of the sap, homes in
on a syrup too golden for a jar,
too memory-sweet for flapjack.
Page(s) 9
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The