purloining a fritillary

squeezed from a tube commercially skipping hair and legs to a
                                                                                                     fairytale ending
each wing-beat is an anticipation of a last step back in advertising
she is as elusive as tinnitus

 

pentecost

her loom the belittlement of silver
the old tin cans buffering communication
across a tennis court
wintering without nets coal is hibernating
like a jewelled toad
                                ornate as the janitor
of our lady

a grounds-man measures trees by their weddings
                                                                                  it seems none
have sprouted a crucifixion or were rolled by picts
some however caught in a garter and spick and span
themselves over skylines
weighing the creases of faces gilding graveclothes

Copyright © Nathan Thompson, 2007.

 

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Nathan Thompson lives in Exeter. His poetry has appeared, or is forthcoming, in a number of magazines and webzines including Stride and Great Works. He is currently working on a first collection, tentatively entitled Poems. This will be a sequel to his unanimously well-received No Poems.