George Messo
PAINTING THE BARN DOORS
The wooden house
adjusts its memory.
A stubborn wind
would break these brittle stars
of frosted marram; the short-lived
seed heads stiff with age and ice
will fall
to where you left the frozen brushes
overnight. I know
there is a moon in you
but I cannot see it. The more
I press, the more the bristles part.
CLEARINGS I
You follow a path
laid by many
but in the end
you are alone
where trees crowd
to a scene
of accidental loss.
CLEARINGS II
Morning leaves the wing
feathers perfectly oiled
sinews at the collar
tattered, reeking faintly.
The mystery of his death
spirals high on thermals
over us, then suddenly pulls away.
One bird to kill another.
CRANE
A pendulum
swings through the marsh,
bridging cracks in the dark.
If we adjust the light
you can understand his message
without knowing what you’ve learnt.
SIEGE OF LARS
Exhalation
of dry leaves
crunched under
feet that fly.
*
A steady
thop
makes overnight
a bed of fallen apples.
*
We sleep in meadows.
Darkness breaks out and surrounds us.
One ear pressed to earth,
one to the cosmos.
Copyright © George Messo 2018
George Messo was born in rural Lincolnshire. He studied philosophy and holds a doctorate in Literary Translation. His recent books include The Complete Poems of Orhan Veli (2016) and Violades & Appledown (2012) from Shearsman Books.