Lockdown Release
Suddenly summer. Parakeets
whirled above, too fast
for more than a glimpse of jade green glitter,
an after-echo of cries
Flowers leaned on walls, bright lips breathed
fragrant calls the insects answered,
wings a glinting blur, tiny feet
clinging to petals as they crawled and fed.
Shoppers’ dark glasses swallowed the light,
and those beach-ready bodies – where
had so many come from, strolling
in crop tops and tight shorts? I imagined their patience
through more than a year of covid restrictions
as they pedalled, ran, lifted, tried out sunless tans,
like bulbs underground in winter preparing
colours and fragrance to call through the light.
Edmund Prestwich lives in Manchester. He has published two collections, Through the Window and Their Mountain Mother. You can link to his website and blog at http://edmundprestwich.co.uk/ and for his Amazon page click here.