landscape
after shopping at Tesco’s
built between
landscaped landfill hills
we struggle to get all our
plastic shopping bags
card crates of cans
and bottled water
in the car boot space
our shopping spills over
onto vacant seats
into foot wells
we maneuver
soft fruit, eggs,
cracker packs
to the top
all the time we
talk about poetry
and what we
leave
for posterity
naming clouds
today I watch clouds
and I name them
stratocumulus is a raincloud
thick closely packed
gray dark to light
it IS raining
but just small drops
they come from that cloud
after falling for ages
if I lie on the ground
I can watch it fall
see a drop
in its last moments
before
the ground makes a point
about solidity
but what is the point
the rain is heavier now
thick cloud thickening
becoming nimbo stratus
dark grey to black
there are only
twelve main names for clouds
but this is black
and brings the night
before its time
today I am watching clouds
naming them
I think I’ll call this one
George
hospice
like Orwell’s crumbs
the disturbed dust moves from
one surface to another
marking time in textured
layers
it covers all the people here as well
the room is cleaned,
the smells masked,
but the dirt is organic
it moves away from dusters
and vacuum heads
escaping to hang
in bars of light
and rest on people.
perhaps this is new dust
perhaps there is more dust here
because skin is dryer
hair looser, more fragile,
in this made up place
than outside
where time still moves
in an understood way
I run my finger along
the dark oak mantelpiece
disturb a million lives
and learn to measure time
as the space between breaths
Jim Bennett has written 74 books and numerous chapbooks and pamphlets in a 50 year career as a poet. Jim lives near Liverpool in the UK and tours giving readings of his work throughout the year. He is widely published and has won many competitions and awards for poetry and performance. He runs www.poetrykit.org, one of the world’s most successful internet sites for poets.
