Right Now I’m Standing

The colour of brown has weathered to near-grey
and the footfall of walkers has covered
the wood with a layer of dust & yet
the part that has fallen among the spikenard
and hungry shrubs surges out of death

The raspberries feed on its breath
and beetles thrive in the slurry middle
where the bole rots

Listen there is nothing as exhilarating
as the feeling of life coming into you

Though people
look suspiciously
stand and listen do not go anywhere

we have been the workers
just the workers

In the Congo one man had a land
almost eighty times
the size of Belgium as his estate

We have been property

When I talk about reclaiming time
I’m just thinking about my body
standing in the middle of this woodland
and
doing nothing nothing