billy

kill the tree

hard air sheaths the moor     the afterglow embalming magnolias     — our newest bud to the nightly rite, nipping kisses     a sweet salt lick over dandelions bristling shut.          look up — it's a big bad noisy star     a southwest dark     in burnt-denim blends. a white cat dusts between the plumber's wheels. snowdrops pleat and buttercups lip          and daises skirt the lawn     like mould-freckled bread. limp dock tongues lap perfectly next to nettles     and the scrawling reaches of catch-weeds     that stitch the barbed fence          to my old Secondary.          desiccated coconut     cakes my teeth, my Vans skidding     on chip-shop polystyrene,     pocket tissues          and February's fallen faces.