Vixen

by Jane Lovell

 

and there
through this Japanese ghost garden
this monochrome dreamscape
slips a half-dreamt wraith

born from the last shades of dusk
she is tip tip toeing on footfall so soft
it uncurls snails
dizzies galaxies in dew

her vagabond heart beats
with the tremors of the earth
balances on owl call
and the breeze rushing the trees

behind her swim timorous worlds
we can never enter

so slight and swift she moves
that without the moon billowing through
the cherry and all the fallen blossom
luminous as snow
I would not see her

 

Jane Lovell has been widely published in journals and anthologies. She won the Flambard Prize in 2015 and has been shortlisted for the Basil Bunting Prize. Three pamphlets are forthcoming in 2018: Metastatic  by Against the Grain Poetry Press, One Tree by Night River Wood and Forbidden as a limited edition portfolio by Coast to Coast to Coast. Her website is at https://janelovell128.wixsite.com/janelovellpoetry