the unknown creature

the unknown creature

its own monument for a moment now

 

mourning the three billion

for Meera Atkinson

 

 

smoke settling

fur fled

empty shell

 

follow in the remains of a track

 

watch now act

 

see how

this was bush

and after in a clearing

past twilight

where the skies are changed

 

find perfectly shaped –

an abstract artefact of fire

 

this all consigned to silence

(place is birdfled

cicadas gone)

 

call cause and culpability

to witness

transfiguring

 

imagine this could speak

 

imagine

we didn’t have to start this

we could stop it yet

 

fallen with branches

climbed namelessly

 

not all quite ash

 

the unknown creature

its own statue for

the moment

 

now the saws

and the dozers come

 

and later yet

the rain