A tree in the forest
Below Sredna Gora
the bus stops at a garage.
Families without faces,
without names, take out
sandwiches and sit
on the grass. The mountains
have done nothing:
they’re waiting for their moment.
Only here distance collapses
and we can see, as clear
as the lines across our palms,
how the trees are convincing
themselves to stay put.
Below Sredna Gora,
in the vicinity of disputes
born of other stories,
it’s enough to spend
a little time at the roadside
and to stare until you can see
every branch and every leaf.
Marina Shiderova is a painter, illustrator and designer based in Sofia in Bulgaria. Tom Phillips is a poet and playwright based in Bristol, UK. For the last 18 months, they have been working together on the collaborative online project Colourful Star (msvstp.blogspot.co.uk) and produced two illustrated/animated children’s stories, Nicholas – The Stolen Reinder and The Adventures of Patch (x-ovation, Bulgaria).