MARSDEN ROCK

Sensational Rock,
swimming in light.
Bird cries clinging to ancient ledges,
Kittiwakes smashing against time.
What tales you could tell.

Your face is so moody,
flickers with breezes,
crumbles in a hot afternoon.

Climbing your powdery steps,
we look down on the sea
thrashing at you.

We join a choir of birds at your peak,
cry out to the sky
in good spirits.

Nesting for the sake of it,
our lyrics are remnants on the shore.

We keep chipping away,
do we not?

We slip
through the pebbles,
splashing
with babies.

We leave our mark,
a grain
on the ancient landscape.

We go.

We dance like the sunlight
on your scarred body:

tripping,
falling,
singing

away.




KEITH ARMSTRONG

FRACTURE

 
It is still too early for leaves
Even though daffodil shoots
Are already pressing green fingers
Through. Meanwhile, as a crow loots

An unnecessary bird feeder,
There’s a woman of four score
Years and more waiting, with her frame,
For transportation. The door

To the ward won’t open on home,
Or those leafless trees beyond
Her back hedge, and the crow will fly
From the daffodil grasped ground.

                                                                

Dave Alton