Photo by Frank Rammsport
Concentric Circles
(after Storm Éowyn)
Nicola Geddes
A circle doth answer to unity
Before dawn
blackbird, thrush and robin
At first light
chainsaw and rook
an infinite line
I counted 37 rings
on the Scots Pine–
the age I was when told
it had spread to the lymph
But I did not fall I did not fall I di d n o t
a circle being the largest and perfectest
blackbird thrush robin
chainsaw rook
there is no terminus a quo
Hawthorn is harder to age
Two of its three trunks now down
The remaining one
slight, vulnerable, exposed
My neighbor cries for the trees
All their friends are dead
Her family half console, half mock
Shh princess shh
nor terminus ad quem
Around her house the grassy carpet
has been torn up, ripping
open the belly of the Earth
I know why she cries
The air is sharp with shock
scented with sap, soil, woodchip
weighted with sorrow.
(after Storm Éowyn)
Nicola Geddes
A circle doth answer to unity
Before dawn
blackbird, thrush and robin
At first light
chainsaw and rook
an infinite line
I counted 37 rings
on the Scots Pine–
the age I was when told
it had spread to the lymph
But I did not fall I did not fall I di d n o t
a circle being the largest and perfectest
blackbird thrush robin
chainsaw rook
there is no terminus a quo
Hawthorn is harder to age
Two of its three trunks now down
The remaining one
slight, vulnerable, exposed
My neighbor cries for the trees
All their friends are dead
Her family half console, half mock
Shh princess shh
nor terminus ad quem
Around her house the grassy carpet
has been torn up, ripping
open the belly of the Earth
I know why she cries
The air is sharp with shock
scented with sap, soil, woodchip
weighted with sorrow.