I hadn’t understood

how grief could be desperate
praise when the new growth –

and the bread-and-butter
May and frog-shaped maple
leaves and the path through woods

that form arches over
the tutting memory of cyclists
but want to be more than arches –

want to be a tunnel leading to bricks,
industry, the tracks up to the gates,
and what lies beyond them:

a reconquest of weeds,
the buddleia announcing forgotten
works – made me see it.

 

Will Eaves most recent book, The Absent Therapist, was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize in 2014.