A collection of poems and other writings...

Saturday 16 July 2016

I cut the grass today - 14th July, 2016

I, like so many, have been deeply affected by the horrific attack in #‎Nice‬ - the tragic loss of life - the shock and terror suffered by those people must have been awful. I myself am preparing to go on holiday today it seemed so trivial and in appropriate and this poem occurred to me as I did so. It is an imagined poem but it is offered out of respect for the dead and injured.


in memoriam

I cut the grass today
in anticipation of our holiday.

The stems bent before the blades.

I do not weep for grass -
there is satisfaction in a job
complete,
pleasure
in that moment of return
when looking out
from the kitchen window,
as the cold tap runs to drinkable
and the fridge shudders to life again,
to see the recovered lawn
once more needing
to be cut.

So I cut the grass today,
and as I do
you
text from France to say
that this is the best holiday
and that this evening you will go to see
the firework display -
Quatorze Juillet.

How nice, I say
and I picture you
in your holiday best -
cool sandals, shorts,
flowered shirt open over string vest -
as you promenade
des anglais
the English way
to take the air
and view the sea.

I zig and zag the grass
with the mower
buzzing through summer weeds
clattering unsuspecting stones
and insects.

You,
in my mind's eye
your child in arms
your lover's hand in yours

I watch
grass bending

before the blades.