"this is sixth form poetry, not Keats or Yeats"
On the night that Titus fell His night nest was not empty, Not empty, but silent. His body still warm, Still warm to receive The procession of still warmer bodies Come to bear witness to what had Fallen. First comes Umushikirano, He beats his chest and begins to Shake the fallen emperor. Later he … Read more
Across the vibrant reefs you snake and crawl, In search of shelter from an unseen threat; The shadows write their names in salty scrawl, Your body intertwined in blind duet. You see the world without a lens or eye, As veiled photoreceptors help you scry; Your skin a dense and tangled web of sight, … Read more
Besides the tranquil sea and sun-bleached sand, The turtles find a place to make their nest; Probing the rolling crescents of the land, To find a place where incubation’s best. Now buried like a golf ball in a dune, The eggs begin to undergo great change; To their surroundings they must now attune, With gender … Read more
We rip apart the Earth on which we stand, Try tame the wild for all that we have planned; Now caught up in our thoughts and ‘expertise,’ Expose ourselves to buried-deep disease. The virus is unmindful of our scheme, And flows between the species like a stream; We cut away the forest from the … Read more
Your pearly whites gleam in the midday sun, But soon your eyes will close and you will sleep; There will be no dreams behind your eyelids, Only the cool steel of the artist’s knife. A coffee-stained sheet of yellow paper In a forgotten filing cabinet Tells us that you are enjoying life out In Queen … Read more
The oceans are awash with our debris, As plastics from our lives flow down the drain And travel down hewn channels to the sea, Where laced with man-made poisons they remain. Through plankton they leach into the food chain, As fish consume this fouled and tainted meal; The plastics then cross over to their brain, … Read more
You prowl and sniff the air around your pack, With outsized ears you wear just like a crown Atop a cloak of matted, mottled brown; The silence summons heckles on your back. You take the centre stage for your attack, And outline plans to raid the nearest town; You prowl and sniff the air … Read more
Balanced on a rock Orange sneezeweed in your mouth; You drop in the heat. This is a Haiku, inspired by recent research which has found climate change responsible for the local extinction of the American pika from California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. The American pika is a small mammal adapted to high altitudes and cold temperatures, … Read more
Dappled silhouettes amongst the trees – A lost memory of verdant lands. Your fragmented impressions Have disappeared from view; All that remains is An empty shell Which one day Too will Fade. This is a nonet, inspired by recent research that has succeeded in comparing the movement and space use of jaguars across five different … Read more
These parasitic insect pests, Crave sanctuary that is sanguine; As most unwelcome, picky guests, They flee the hues of gold and green. Lilac and violet are painted, Daughters become well acquainted; Whilst sons search for others in red, To blacken the sheets on our bed. This is a Rispetto, based on recent … Read more