Buckenham Marshes

Rooks in a field, rooks in a field,
Sky to south, and day repealed.
Pieces of assembling night
Demonstrate the laws of flight.

Four-thirty, winter afternoon,
Blue standing pools, the white balloon
Presides. Oak, alder, willow, pine,
Some crossing-gates, a railway line.

Sundown – elaborate affair
Of pewter cloud and copper air:
Big furniture. Not part of this
Older and darker edifice.

What is assumed is not what’s meant:
Nothing here implies intent.
Gatherings of beak and bone,
Snowfall, nightfall, iron, stone.

Copyright (c) Neil Fleming, 2012