The poems for March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December and January in this sequence were posted on 24 February 2014, 21 March, 20 April, 24 May, 20 June, 29 July, 29 August, 27 September, 25 October, 24 November and 30 December 2014. This is the last of the poems: I shall gather them all together in one sequence subsequently.
------------
A
niggard thaw fouls pavements; filthy melt
Refreezes;
encrusted snow streaks parklandLike a scraped canvas. Spattered frost like felt
Tops hedge and soil, blighting with a thrawn hand
The
muted froth of heathers. Scarlet berries
Decay
in the holly though the cherry treePowders its crown with hesitant fancies
Of blossom. Taut daffodil wands make free
With the breeze, dipping their yolk-heads broodily
Over the beanshoot-skinny crocuses.
The tide is slack. Clouds eddy wearily,
Blotting the sun – a disc which focuses
No
light nor heat. Men like woodlice in litter
Grudgingly
stir, their torpid warmth combustedBy the seasons’ peristalsis. But the bitter
Monochrome wind discourages bombastic
Gesture:
better to re-curl in shavings
Like
a breathing nodule than be wokenBy an incautious morning mob of starlings –
Their wings cracking like a black cloth shaken.
Dead
water: sopping sands glitter; suede shingle
Darkens
beneath indigo shadow; the wavesLift careless heads like seals. But that wrangle
Of waters is unstable; soon that which laves
Will
pound, driving up the foreshore to thrash
The
sea wall and startle all drowsing flesh.
====================
© February 2013