Deepdale
It can be felt
before it is seen:
the old brown river,
an unburied body
alive in its self-dug grave
in the ancient trees.
Parting the leaves
like patients
in a green ward
we step through their net,
and there it flows
as it ever has, the same course,
deep on the far side,
always moving
and remaining.
We heave stones;
smooth messages skim
the thick brown water.
Last time we stood here,
love,
we were different people.
Last time we stood here,
remember,
it was a different river.
Philip Miller is a writer and poet based in Edinburgh. His poems have been published in print and online and his novels are The Blue Horse (2015), All the Galaxies (2017) and The Goldenacre (2022).