30


July winds heave
     disarming
          end-of-summer tang
                    flush distant city's sins elsewhere
it does make sense to gaze
          smoke trails cut to
                    sped sparingly proportionate
the aural undertow
     enters my newly-mown field of vision
          where a murder of crows
                    for most of the week
                         a safe distance from the plough
                              far from sky and all its stars
the sound is caught up
     in one end row turn acoustic trough
          where the share forces
               the barking of gulls breaking shells
                    bivalves cracked at dawn
                         on patchy Margate camber
                              the hollow wail
                                   of the Omniscient Mussel
                                        lost little ones
                                             smashed to bits
                                                  day after day
                                                       at least these rakish crows
                                                            just tear root stubble
                                                                 from the ground
                                                                      with pointless unkindness
                                                                           at night Callisto turns circadian
                                                                               cartwheels round the valley
                                                                                  hill darkness softens sleep's steepness
                                                                                    reduces the crows' percentage of black hell
                                                                                    for what they done
                                                                                  Shiva shrugs holds back a wink
                                                                                 ingress to where my nerves won't reach





Valverde         August 2007