It is so still today
smoke rises from an allotment bonfire
in a pillar of disbelief
the motorway’s drone is a single
dull wall of sound
muted birdsong reaches me
across a frozen field
I am the most disruptive
element in the landscape
feet slapping the ground
ragged exhalations of breath
on unexpected inclines
but when I stop and listen
I realise I am not
the only interruption ~
a passing train, the cries
of children in the yard
of a school half a mile away
and then in the next moment
the peals of the school bell
calling us all to order
and I am a child
in another schoolyard
in another landscape
bouncing on my heels
turning towards this future
I have yet to imagine.
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