Hand to Earth by Rebecca Brewin

I TELL THE TREES

Our walk around Cley Hill fort today

My veiled head circling in random undulations

Spiralling up tussled trails, tread lopsided

Rushing down grassy slopes, thwarted in furrows

Scanning the stark soil, now snagged by barbed wire

I, a promontory, defended and miles from it’s heart

Am prowling mind’s battlements

Dutiful yet distracted; watchful yet numb.

And because I cannot tell you

I tell the trees.

And they whisper such a sheltering applause

From where their red buds arrow and prick the sky

Their winter branches so saluting the hot colour of complaint

So tenderly quivering as my guarded words catch the wind

That I see you also, as a if tree

Viewing the landscape with me

Defended and miles from your heart

Whilst somehow, though snagged into silence

Glad that I am here, not telling you

Just arms and heart, though flailing, poised

A fortress, a friend.