Microseasons of Love
Economic headwinds return
Kids run amok on half-term
Burberry struts along the catwalk
RAINWATER
Brollies come out to play
It’s Pancake Day
Orchids put on a show at Kew
INSECTS AWAKEN
Tea with mum
Cherry trees turn out in Greenwich Park
Pints flow at Waxy O’Connor’s
SPRING EQUINOX
Daffodils bloom
Lights go dark for an hour
Boats race across the Thames
PURE & CLEAR
Cuckoos return–Cuckoo!
Smarten up; it’s the Grand National
Santander cycles weave through town
GRAIN RAINS
St. George’s Day
The Marathon is underway
Abed with the dreaded lurgy
BEGINNING OF SUMMER
Readiness is all
Bees begin to buzz
Whiffs of cut grass fill the air
LESSER RIPENING
Till and sow
Hours of weeding the garden
Live music/street food vibes
GRAIN BEARDS & SEEDS
An obbligato of babies in prams
Victorian koi circle a pond
Strawberries turn bright red
SUMMER SOLSTICE
A naked peloton protests petroleum
Butterflies flit through fields of lavender
The sun shines bright at Ruislip Lido
LESSER HEAT
Sir Cliff serenades Centre Court
RHS Hampton Court Palace shows off
Young rabbits and stoat kits scamper
GREATER HEAT
Blackcurrants and blueberries ripen
Earth swelters–dog days
Swimmers cool off at Canary Wharf
BEGINNING OF AUTUMN
Harebells and heather flower
Dragonflies are on the wing
The lungs of London exhale
MANAGEABLE HEAT
Ducks dip in water
Lady’s tresses show cream and ivory
Steel bands sound through Notting Hill
WHITE DEW
Gigs and skiffs race from Millwall
Autumn colours start to show
Hops vine around and around
AUTUMN EQUINOX
Wood mice gather hazelnuts
Starlings dine on elderberries
Farmers plant winter wheat
COLD DEW
Temperatures drop
Red deer rut
Apple picking season arrives
FROST FALLS
Supernatural screams haunt the Tube
Wild boar feast on fallen fruit
Pegasus lights the northern sky
BEGINNING OF WINTER
Bats begin to hibernate
Flanders poppies flourish
Salmon rush upstream
LESSER SNOW
Leaves fall
Skaters glide across the ice
Fox cubs light out
GREATER SNOW
Woollen coats come out of storage
Goldfinches descend on feeders
Holly berries blaze in crimson
WINTER SOLSTICE
Choral voices fill the air
Big Ben rings out
Fireworks light the sky
LESSER COLD
Wassailers bless the trees
Bargain shoppers hunt for sales
Brown trout start to spawn
GREATER COLD
Crocuses push through the snow
Swans flock to open lakes
Wee drams raise to auld lang syne
This Christmas I Will Be Gifting You From The Fly-Tip In My Front Yard
I’m hanging up my night vision goggles and cricket bat.
I can’t afford to have the stuff hauled,
and I can’t leave it in front of my house.
So this yuletide season, I’m giving it away.
One lucky friend will get a set of three pretty good tyres.
I stuck a bow on a half empty can of paint.
I combed through bric-a-brac and put it in party bags.
I plugged in a dented Chef Mike,
and it still works (sort of), so I’m wrapping that.
I can see what you’re thinking.
You don’t really need a gently used mattress
or discards from a DIY project.
Never fear! If you don’t like your gifts from me this holiday,
feel free to dump them somewhere else.
Fancy Dress Race
from boroughs and beyond
they converge on Blackheath
how do you run in full costume?
why do you?
for fun, for charity, for glory?
to be the fastest person
dressed as a mythical creature
dressed as a world landmark?
the course doesn’t care
the weather, your strategy and pacing
your quads, your knees and ankles
can you use the portable loo in that outfit?
volunteers and medics stand ready
as runners make their way
past miles of cheering Londoners
along the Thames converging on The Mall
more than a love letter,
a salute to the spirit of a city
a promise set in motion
to finish what was begun
enduring, triumphant
marked by style and grace
by pain and sacrifice
by grace and good cheer
The Nation That Doesn’t Want To Be A Brueghel
About suffering they are never wrong,
The Ugandans: how reluctantly they concede
To its hierarchy: how it lingers
Over phone batteries dying and getting coffee orders wrong;
How, when the elders are earnestly, fervently waiting
For the blessed rain, there will necessarily be
Children who complain that they do not want it, kicking
A football ball near the edge of town:
They never doubt
That Maslow’s pyramid must be climbed from the bottom
Anyhow in a field, some weathered soil
Where women harvest sweet potatoes before weevils
Arrive with the dry season.
In Brueghel’s Gallows, for instance: how everything taunts
Quite pointedly the authority; the dancers may
Have seen the scaffold, the leafless tree
But for them it is of small regard; the state endures
As it has for decades of enforced disappearances
And the chattering magpies that must have seen
Something astonishing, a country about to come undone,
Perch nearby and mimic the cries of the poor.
~after Musee des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden
Lara Dolphin - A native of Pennsylvania, Lara Dolphin is an attorney, nurse, wife and mom of four amazing kids. Her chapbooks include In Search Of The Wondrous Whole, Chronicle Of Lost Moments, and At Last a Valley forthcoming from Blue Jade Press.
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