Plums

lately I’ve been walking

in the gardens of the dead

and made myself

at home

the plum trees

are weighed down

the branches propped

with sticks    such fruit

hangs abundant 

as wasps scout juice

and enter the glass

traps   impossible

texts are written

in their bloom

my thumbs ache

to trace them

 “They are perfectly safe/this is a still”

within a frame which emphasises stillness

two quiet men have stopped to chat

a pink and black flecked seed

is perfectly still, its cold umbilicus

has brushed their palms

they cannot act until a leopard falls

the leopard will not fall until they act

it sleeps on rinds and peel tossed

in mid winter   as if the bearded dark

could cloak the spring

From ‘Picture Emphasising Stillness’, David  Hockney , 1962

The floating man

the floating man

would know

his own existence

untouched      conjectural

with arms and legs apart

his fingers stretched

he drifts alone

and silent

corpuscles

are stilled

in this

experiment

he

is 

Channel

so much rain

the light keeps changing

frets and mists seep over;

squalls run with the wind

if we could speak

what would we say? 

I’ve laid down chalk and made

a cliff of amazing whiteness

you might see it on a good day

eyes narrowed against the light

Copyright © Janet Sutherland, 2008

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