Forgive me soldier, I never knew
How your life was wasted in such
Tragic tears
Your youth by the roadside just slipped away
Your beauty went with you
Your poetry too.

Born to be famous with beautiful
Words
Layed out in notebooks and on
Paper scrolls.
Never married, no children born
But I have your poetry in my drawer.

Love Mary

So many have I watched
Falling, dripping, rolling
From the clouds to earth.
Catching in my mouth
The taste of dust.
Trickling between cloth and skin,
The groove in my chest.
And the splashes fill the puddles
At my feet where I stand
I'll be a single drop of rain
In the palm of your hand.

Love Mary **

The days always had Red Robin and Cyril
And us two sitting on the cold back step
You ninety - four and me in my late forties
Red Robin came forward, hop, hop, hop
And took the cheddar from you old man.

Days of simplicity when the bluetits nested
And the birdtable was filled with seeds daily
Your strong hands, tapped up the peanut tin
Your son shaved the stubble on a rough chin
This quietness was rewarded by many birds.

Love Mary ***

A road of palest lime fluttering Sycamore trees
Some almost leafless, others coronets still there
Through the golden branches colbalt blue skies
Lilac bushes, the garden daisies, flower in rows.

Thinning Robinna casts shadows of dim shade
Contrasting the red Acer’s lace leaf with green
The trunk arch of handkerchief laden Foxglove
Holds open its beautiful boughs to be admired.

For Autumn spreads my walk in glorious glitter
Though the evening pulls in the coldness of year
Making the best of these last savages of seasons
Gathering leavings, the birdtable spills its seeds.

Love Mary ***

The briar and rose of Autumn lends light
All covered in harvest ripe berries and leaf
The bird on wing flies high against winds
And pulling over hats we trundle the shred.

Love Mary x

Never seen an apple tree
With crimson and green
Set against sunflowers
On a hot afternoon.

Thé garden is laden with
Visual delight and I move
To gather favourite sights
A waterbutt  blue and white.

Love Mary ***

Wait, I hear you tipping through the long grass
A trumpet of flowers and an armful of love
My heart is a crystal of raindrops fair
And you are my fairies who fly through the air.

Love Mary , Mum , Grandma x

In the middle of the road stood a toad
All dressed out in green and gold
He did not frown to see those prettier
Than he but wondered at such ecstasy.

Love Mary **

And so they cluster frilly spinning dancers
Across the Autumn stage
Yellow centred bodices
The lilac, white and cerise petals
Of Michaelmas Daisy remembered
Each year flowering for us always.

Love Mary x

The best part of the day
Sun on bramble bushes
Ripe with blackberries
The fields smokey brown
As contrast to the blue sky.

The pleasure of walking
Each stride, healthy strong
Smiling the hour’s destiny
Here and back, to meander
In the sensible shoes, today.

Love Mary ***

Little crown of gold resting on green
Each floret a circular gem, a princess
A friend, healer sustainer, nature into
Flower laid in the grasses as I walk by.

Love Mary ***

‘Why ask’,said the field mouse to Hedgehog
Who scuttled along softly on four short legs
Wearing a bobble hat made of apache wool
‘I don’t know but truths must be brought on.’

‘Yes’, said Mousey as it perched with fairy
In the brown bed filled with green cuttings
For only here with my friend is the world’s
Beauty allowed a sharing heart and voice.

So take me into the garden with pink roses
Growing one with up turned bright bud
Shoes holding tightly your peering down
Fills out the future with seeded windmills.

Love Mary x