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From: Vol.04 N.01 – Where to feel now

Mimesis/Nemesis

by Helen Moore

In the meadow that slopes

to an aching stream,

 

we’re pilgrims come to reverence

this mythical plant – a chimera

that’s animal & vegetable in form.

 

But the tractor’s already made its bid

for silage,

& from the margins, rattles round robotic –

 

Krone arm bearing down

where grasses quake & fall,

 

this Keridwen come before her time

gnashing teeth,

 

her galvanised desires

mutated beyond the ancient rites

of husbandry.

 

We rush in where angels knelt;

this dwindling haven

from which still ascend

 

on slender spears

Ophrys apifera – sepals colour of white-girl

nipples, where each

 

corolla’s russet fuzz

is scented

eau-de-female Bee;

 

has stubby flightless

wings our quivering

fingers touch.

 

How could such beings evolve

so wily in mimesis,

yet seem so innocent

of their nemesis closing now?

 

These ever-decreasing circles –

Krone a swarm

maddened by the smog

of ancient sunlight –

 

in the meadow that slopes

to an aching stream

Note:

Krone is a make of agricultural machinery

Published: January 2017
Helen Moore

is an award-winning British ecopoet and socially engaged artist based in NE Scotland.  Her two poetry collections are Hedge Fund, And Other Living Margins (Shearsman Books, 2012) and, acclaimed by John Kinsella as “a milestone in the journey of ecopoetics”, ECOZOA (Permanent Publications, 2015).  FFI: www.natures-words.co.uk

An Australian and international
journal of ecopoetry and ecopoetics.

Plumwood Mountain Journal is created on the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to elders past, present and future. We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the lands this journal reaches.

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