Drawing by Judith Wolfe
Leicester Kyle

Two Poems


      THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

      It wasn't her

      She didn't go to sleep

      It was the rose that covered the house
      Rosa moschata

      It hadn't flowered for years
      because of the weather

      but after that winter
      with all those frosts
      it bloomed for the summer

      You could smell it in town

      It wasn't her that awoke
      not at all

      Things got mixed

      STRESS ON THE MOORS

      To be warm
      we must consume---
      wood or coal
      wind or water

      and in this jostle to survive

      we deprive

      in this small town
      all that lives about us
      of food

      and space

      The snail is eaten

      by our rats
      The birds are eaten
      by our cats

      We clear plant and build

      as we please

      Nothing is at ease

      nor content

      No tree may grow

      to its fullness
      No space may grow
      to a need

      and our small creatures
      that had small cause to hide
      must be furtive


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