Ferns
There was a cold winding music
a frozen answer.
I knelt under time’s
branches.
The year the ferns sang.
The year the ferns sang
heard the lungs of every hillside dream
my breath held the unfamiliar pedalled notes.
I listened to violet reliance
oh how the ferns sang,
brought quiet sleet to mind.
Up.
The hills run clear.
We have run about the hills
We have run about the hills
Listening to gentle green lull,
creasing like a crumpled page.
Up.
I want good will I want it
back I want it back I want it
back fresher than this tidy
water runs down dribbling
January sky I want it back I
want it back I want a cup of
It a handful of cool I want
ice to sing through the
shadows
Ferns II
We have run about the hills
We have run about the hills
We have run about the hills
The year the ferns sang
The hills run clear
The hills run clear
Up
There was a cold winding music
A frozen answer
I heard the lungs of every hillside dream
My breath held the unfamiliar pedalled notes
Up
Cold music
Up
Reliance
The hills run clear
The year the ferns sang
Reliance
I knelt under time’s branches
Reliance
Up
Molly Knox is a recent MA Ethnomusicology graduate from Durham University. Their micro-chapbook ‘Spindrift’ is out with The Braag. Her recent work can be found in Magma 88, The Selkie, Carmen et Error, and Briefly Zine. She is a 2025 T. S. Eliot Young Critic. She can be found on instagram @mollymoon28_ and on Bluesky @mollykmoon28