Wayfinding
i
under yellowing branches of birch,
in my shirtsleeves, with a glass of red
& a book whose verses feel transposed
out of & back into the same language
with no attempt to hide the slight
pull in the beautiful restitched skin,
the patched meaning I read half
in envy, half wary of being quietly
beguiled from the real into an exitless
world of transformation – & sure
enough it starts, with the wriggle
of a motile comma – no wait – it's
a living speck, a thrip impelled
to wander across my page on a path
angled to the line-count, pattering
on feet the human eye can't spot
over boundaries between the black
stems & empty counters of letterforms
insouciant or (for all I know) terrified
for its life, so I wait for it to find a clear margin,
then the paper's edge, then I shake it free
ii
later as sleep presses closed my eyelids
comes a replay of miles of glinting fences,
wire staves dotted with the soundless
notes of hawthorn buds witnessed
from John's car as it tears along the lanes
one spring in southern downland:
then we slide under the filmic dazzle
of sunlight-treebough-sunlight & I'm
winding down the window to chuck out
a nibbled core into the streaking green
wondering if some years later we might
consult his head map of the county, rewind
to this same stretch & pinpoint a rogue
apple sapling reverting from its cultivar
straight & tall among the jack-by-the-hedge
Steve Xerri was Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year 2017 and has appeared in numerous print and online magazines including Atrium, Brittle Star, The Clearing, Fortnightly Review, Ink Sweat and Tears, The Interpreter’s House, Ó Bhéal 5 Words Anthology, The Poetry Shed, Poetry Society Newsletter (Members’ Poems), Raceme, Sentinel Literary Quarterly and Stride Magazine. His first pamphlet Mutter/Land was recently published by Oystercatcher Press. You can find him here: https://stevexerripoetry.co.uk.