"this is sixth form poetry, not Keats or Yeats"
Submerged beneath sediments of ancient ash and bone, the variety of absence suggests the magnitude of loss; high-precision ageing unearthing fountains that loom above the scene of the crime. Living mountains that smother the air and wilfully suck the blame from prying, pointing fingers. Buried deep in the records …
Anthropogenic biomes cascade Across natural networks, Swarming across this backdrop With assumed transcendence. Broken footprints disrupt Fractured ecologies; Disremembered territories Whose buried cycles Are trampled beneath the topsoil. Our treads scar the landscape, While conceited measurements of Their length, breadth, and tread Fail to catalogue the Consequence of each stride. …
Looking down on jaded canopies, Blinded eyes quickly cast their Milky gaze across logging That persists without permission And wildfires that raze without restraint; Ploughing through virgin shades of green To create hard edges where Assassins lurk in dampened shadows. Escalating in their severity, These infected hosts Breed, Thrive, Survive; …
Beneath dusted peaks of mountain dew A dense and rigid backcloth skulks, Worn down and compacted with Fractured decades of aged powder; Trodden into rocky outcrops To lie barrenly against This frozen, ancient soil. Subtle shifts of these forgotten rocks Ripple across subterranean sediments, Dislodging once-stable foundations That now cascade …
Beneath shadows Of Spring Mountains The rain dove arcs Across a barren sky, Its trembling shadow Rolling listlessly Above abandoned towns Of silver and gold, Whose former occupants Drift aimlessly, Tracing invisible contrails With covetous, translucent fingertips. Sinking in these sandy seas The rain dove plummets Beneath the waves; …
Choking on the excessive vapours Of our abandoned debauchery Your stunted shoots flail awkwardly In artificial chambers of soil and sedge. Your weathered hands Fly too close to the sun, Goaded by an elevated fixation That cannot support the Consequence of its ambition. Meanwhile, beneath a moistened Carpet of shrunken …
In hollowed holes of Knotted cells, Tensile echoes Bubble beneath the surface – Frothing with potential As they wait to break Free from the confines Of their cellular walls. Synthetic solutions: Nurtured in nature. Tangled webs of Dew-lined geometries Glimmer gently, Their native silks Bearing broken bodies That belay …
Your translucent skin Gasps gently for breath In the Land of the Noonday Sun; A mountainous vista Unexpectedly replaced With Ziploc bags and Moist paper towels As you travel to Transparent incubators To be fed a diet of Crickets, Humidity, And rising temperatures. Beneath a harsh and Artificial sun …
Illegal logging in community forests, Oil drilling in indigenous territories, Mining concessions in native soils, These have become our warzones. Activists hailed as terrorists, While global agribusiness is Paraded as unchallenged And unchosen liberator. Forever on the right side of progress; Writing its history With cheques, And laws, And body …
Browsing through the foliage You selectively suppress The spindly growths of youth, Maintaining gaps of light Through frequent visitations To clumsily prune each trunkful Of frail and wasteful biomass. Ungainly gardeners of this Fragile, jaded home, Your disturbances reshape Wooded structures and Buried thickets; Shearing lively brushes As you …