Imagine a wood it is dark and warm its damp places trackable through reed wet the briared lochan its infinity of spored dust broken only by a network of smeuse, the dry leaves under backed braes a custard of spewed fungi over now on a branch its work is done imagine this place where appearances aren’t good air thick insects surfacing from the brack of leaf mould and spatter of mast, thorns, coppice, shell, egg, lissom slime and know this is how it should be the bus that arrived picked up its passengers and departed returning perhaps late at night to a snug of family life the need for bright paths? clear the old wood and see our home tumble into flames.
Bridget Khursheed
Bridget Khursheed is a poet and geek based in the Borders and a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award recipient. Her latest collection is The last days of petrol (Shearsman Books). She is a BTO WeBS voluntary surveyor with a River Tweed stretch and also part of the Scottish Birds journal team.