Acid Wood

I am taking you into the forest.

Horsed men hunted here before I did

I’ll show you these pony paths

Where the dry-bone beechnut earth

Leads our feet, crackling,

Not dank dark spinneys but

Sun sparkled genteel rooms.

We’ll waltz in the court of the Deer King

And lean in against soft barkless wood

Where he’s rubbed.

Sinuous trunks temple dance

For lightning scarred oaks

Let’s lose time between bracken screens

Make a bed on the heather

Lie in amongst acid greens

2016