"this is sixth form poetry, not Keats or Yeats"
After the accident the forest returned, blanketing forsaken machinery in a gentle, unfamiliar embrace. Stacks of contaminated televisions lie in heaps, repurposed as shelters for the returning fauna. Computer screens that once glimmered with potency now lie abandoned, tainted by a film of excrement, and something that we mustn’t name. …
Born into violence: the offspring of mixed aggressions, traces of sickly silver quickly infiltrate our atmosphere. Toxic clouds that sail the zephyrs, spurting their entrails in rhythmic pitter patter of metallic rain that cascades upon the sea. Soundscapes of forest fires and burning waste sink beneath the waves, where …
Synthetic fossils adjoin the coastline. Fallen into dirty piles they wait to be shucked clean of sand, and mud, and debris. Flowing like tallow beneath the waves. Fleece jackets wick our irritants. Fallen into dirty piles they wait to be shucked clean of sand, and mud, and debris. Bleeding …
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 …