This week’s piece, as you may have guessed, was inspired by my walk home today. It’s funny how you can be taken from inspirational happiness to existential sadness by a single walk, but that’s the way the world is. I tried to combine nature with the impact of the manmade world, but I think the nature always shines through a little more in my poetry. In any case, here’s Walking Home!
Walking Home
Not to make a fuss of such a small event,
but a blackbird chirped in my ear of life and love and death.
Stems splayed against the fencing, white flowers as their heads,
and little dangling buds listened to all that they said.
Stepping, stepping, stepping again, I drifted down the path,
towards a collection of coloured cars and a solitary bin;
it stung my eyes with agonizing scars, ripped in by knives of youth,
but I continued on nevertheless – I found another lane.
Here, I thought I might find a little solace from the pain,
as neatly shaven hedges rustled to lush lawns of green.
But no – upon the lane, I saw the tiny, naked corpse
of a bald-pink baby bird, plucked from mother’s chest too soon.
Not knowing what to do with myself, I stepped over the sight,
feeling the dandelions’ harsh gaze of disapprovement and disdain
as I continued my now-miserable wander down the lane,
wondering how nature and man had both become the same.
Enjoyed the poem? Why not check out Our Paused World or Aleatory Poetry?
(They’re my poetry collections! Available on Amazon!)
Oskar Leonard 