JUDGEMENT by Dawn Wood

after ‘Birches’ - Robert Frost

To Jeremy and Christine Auld

You must have seen him when he was a fixture

and no one asked what pin he swivelled on

and just accepted he was swinging, rooted


on the spire, but earth’s a better place

for love, so slicing through the annex roof


he bent to join the nave of the cathedral


and what a lovely copper stippled smile


he is with scalloped feathers, viewed up close.

The inner dome of heaven hadn’t fallen

and I would say the universe conspired


with the same pains you’d use to fill a cup


up to the brim and even above the brim


to see no one was killed or cut or wept


the smallest tear, unless the Truth breaks in –

co-incidence, my dear. And it is good


the insurance will cover the cost of scaffolding

to put him back where seagulls come and go

and play in batches, learning all there is


to learn about not launching out too soon.

Reproduced. with the permission of the author. from her new collection Ingathering, published by the ever-splendid Templar Poetry (ISBN 9781906285685).  I'll be reviewing the collection for Iota later in the year.