14th April 2025

 

weeding

in the afternoon sunshine

bramble thorns

© Rachel Green April 2025

V.I

Two rooms remain in this deserted place

which echoes with despair and private grief;

she assumes it echoes hers, as is the case

with the kitchen to her left, which gives relief

when she finds several cans of food remaining

in the cupboards, though the fridge has been stripped bare

but for a single pint of milk sustaining

an evolving ecosystem growing there.

She fills a plastic Tesco bag with all the food

she finds; a tin of stewing steak and some dried beans

of the red kidney kind, which she has always viewed

as poison from the phytohemagglutinins it weans. 

© Rachel Green April 2025