Cyclamen
I woke to workers with blades
along the verge, yellow-jacketed
to signify contracted rights
to hack and scythe died-back
bracken and living saplings
to a brown shrivel.
What a story to be part of,
forlorn in the telling
of nature diminished
by men being masterful.
But remember their look
before the blades,
petals of quiet white
circle a deeper plot.
Gill Horitz’s poetry & essays have been published in magazines and anthologies, and a short story in Cheatin’ Heart, published by Serpent’s Tail. Her pamphlet All the Different Darknesses’was published by Cinnamon Press. Gill lives in Wimborne, Dorset. gillhoritz.cargo.site