Janet Sutherland

Garden


1

letting the stones drift
through soil
upwards as if gravity
could be absent
as if the heart
was light


as if the sun pulls
not just the green
leaf and stem
and the sap
which will subside
but the hard stuff
it’s built on


2

bindweed and couch
unravel
their parchment
sinews
gathered in the soil
will burn like straw


3

the earliest broad beans
bitter in the pod
and I remember


it wasn’t worth going home
you said
“just the white lights shining
through the dark trees and
not a soul passing”