July Dispatch!
The warm tides and tinder box gorseland sing their curses over the summer…
The news is full of fire
Smoke in our throats
My friend writes to tell me how
the adders have taken to the rivers
She must watch her step in woods
We try to swim but the seas
Are choked with jellyfish
Rubbery moon disks
glinting on the wet sands
in their hundreds
I send the spells from the year so far
To be printed in two colours
In a stack
Wrapped in brown paper
They wait to be folded
And cast
I reimagine the
Rainbow Goblin of June
as stickers
And pins
In joyful clusters
They are patient and eager
to fulfil their purposes
I make Dogs and Birds
In wire and tape
Their stories
Taking shape
Beginning to populate the familiar
In between places
I have walked
Soon they will become
A part of those places
Indivisible
Forever.
This is a thing that
took all my time
And I can’t tell you about it
Yet
But I can promise
That there will be
mushrooms in your future
The power shifts at the top
And the dust
Dislodged and running
Into our mouths
Breaks the promises made
Not to touch the oil