sheena blackhall (18/8/1947 / Aberdeen)

Up in the trees' turrets,
Steeplejack squirrels pour off bending boughs
Like plumps of rain

Spider's trampoline boings between two twigs
Ivy clings like Mars to Aphrodite.

Pressed to the forest floor by Winter's boot
Beech leaves suffer the dominatrix session

Brown warts poke from the field's green face
The busy molehills bursting up like acne

A vole is sucked down the quicksand
Of hawk's red throat.

A bumblebee like a cake crumb
Buzzes off in search of honey
A bread and butter moment in the spring.