quick comes squirrel
to creep over me as he
had rarely known
and very intently
on haunches
sniff and
scanned my surroundings
a little irritably
tail wagging
“now what’s a boy to make of that?”
the ash tree
rose up and up
to where
it was the lure of
bare branches
sprout hands
sure as thunder
to shudder
stored fat
out from me
“He’s wanted for about everything
and reveal himself
in the shallow by
the Cistercian
when Osbert who
began scriptures
until their Latin
stolen each night
from a field
the hare hastes
his family were
with the priest
in a child voice
the dog could
swear and speak
to make sure
here I want to focus more
on the springs and the autumns
and the winters and the summers
because it gives me the greatest pleasure
allow me to sleep on the
only right places
keep away
I was terrified
I thought of all the terrible things
then James found a
bluest eggshell that
on the further field
he was still so tired that
he was sweating as much as
the cow parsley
is sprung again
____________________
Adam Warne was born in Suffolk in 1988. He has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and is currently working towards a PhD at the University of Roehampton. His pamphlet Suffolk Bang was published by Gatehouse Press in 2018.
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