- Snapshots
from Morecambe Bay
- a sequence by Yann
Lovelock with illustrations by Ian Robinson
- for Peter Dent
-
-
- 1.
-
- Grasshopper mind,
- song we hear
- in a hundred places,
-
- busybody, how is it
- when we look
- you’re not there
-
-
- and only this to
show,
- snapped hastily
- after the lyric
miles,
-
- a common weed
- among the stones.
-
-
 -
-
- 2.
-
- Who needs earth any
more,
- what use are roots,
-
- shadows in sunlight
-
- travelling millions
of miles an hour?
-
-
 -
-
- 3.
-
- Invaders of the
greenhouse,
- blue exhausts in
flower,
-
- a hum, a hive,
- the engines of M25.
-
-
- 4.
-
- Pine groves and
political jargon,
-
- the cables of pylons
- stretching like razor
wire
- between watch towers
-
- in a Chinese
landscape.
-
-
 -
-
- 5.
-
- A ridge in darkness
- beyond which
-
- the sun’s match
head
- striking rock
-
- makes its final
- territorial demand.
-
-
- 6.
-
- Turning the page from
barbed wire
- and an apple half-eaten
-
- you find a sheep’s
skull amongst moss.
-
-
 -
-
- 7.
-
- Lifting into space,
- curvature
- the camera cannot
follow,
-
- their aim
- off-frame,
-
- the momentum of
missiles
- on track for the
impersonal kill
- locks us to the
monitor,
-
- our eyes
- anaesthetised
-
- by the legerdemain of
technique.
-
-
 -
-
- 8.
-
- In the empty space
- strewn with ghosts
- presences still
rustle
-
- the market’s
bustle:
-
- spectrum of rubble,
- a hand enclaved
- amongst splinters of
glass,
-
- terror’s
simplicities
- resist the wind.
-
-
 -
-
- 9.
-
- Shriven by the past
- that limits our pity,
-
- a list of names
- the bowl in which
- we dip our hands,
-
- each of us sides
- with the victim of
our choice.
-
-
 -
-
- 10.
-
- Stretching to the
frame’s edge
- as over every
- interchangeable
statement,
-
- your shadow too
- makes its denial
-
- amid yammer of
excuses
- for what cannot be
justified.
-
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