She lingers
She who is the silence of the hills
sits today in a grassy bowl
on their northern flank
white hair streaming behind her
in a wind that is not there
She is larksong ascending
bleats of sheep
cries of blind baby rabbits within
the safety of deep dug havens
She is a bird of prey on the wind
runs with deer, fights stags for the joy of it
leaves gates open, flattens corn
dances with magpies, parleys with rooks
eats with the badger, leaps and twists as a vixen
loves a dark crow in the night
She walks in the distance
is the figure approaching in the corner of your eye
never there when you turn
the unexpected footstep when you are trying to rest
the laughter of storms
She is the buzz and burr of tractors
yet winces as they corrugate tracks
flinches as they plough and harrow
her skin
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Kim Whysall-Hammond grew up in London but now lives where the skies are much darker. She has worked as an Astronomer, in Climate Research, and in Telecommunications. Her speculative poetry has been published by Kaleidotrope, On Spec, Space and Time Magazine, Star*Line, Andromeda Spaceways, The Future Fire, Utopia Science Fiction, Frozen Wavelets, Crannóg, and others. She has two poems in the Dead of Winter anthology from Milk and Cake Press.
Image Credit: Mother Nature (wallpapercave.com)
