The slow brutality of ice
caught on a wind that given time
will whet a body to an edge.
From here our world begins.
High seat of abrasive gods,
their stone altar scattered.
Take back these roads,
take back these settlements,
for weasel and stoat will have dominion.
The hare will have dominion.
Curlew will sing a lonely praise
below this dome of cloud.
And crows will pick at our bones,
discarded in the half-drowned fields,
white scapula and skull.
From The Seven Wonders, a series of paintings and drawings by Paul Evans with poems by James Caruth, Matthew Clegg, Angelina D’Roza, Mark Goodwin, Rob Hindle, Chris Jones, Helen Mort, Fay Musselwhite, Alistair Noon and Peter Riley. Listen to James Caruth reading this poem:
Longbarrow Press 