In the clearing

The forest was swollen with water. 
Branches stirred swamped bases
And moorhens made homes in brown bramble
Puddles surrounded with mud.
But I didn't expect the sky to fall,
To lie in the clearing
And see clouds drift across the floor -
Suddenly so close me.

C. LJ Ireton 2024

The journeys

Standing still by the glass

I run through a thousand nightmares

And on the floor

I stretch as far as the stars,

then race back down to tell you about them.

I traverse distances that do or don't exist

In a few silent breaths

And some of them are beautiful, 

when I am not scared.  

I journey

Mad or wanted -

By going nowhere. 

C. LJ Ireton 2024

April Showers

Four months in
And more of the same,
Silt white rain runs
Like frustration 
On cheeks.

Sullen at the sky,
I still open the window -
In low whistles and water hit consonants 
The Earth is recounting its day
And wants to know
Who's listening. 

C. LJ Ireton 2024 

The Three of Us

It was two o'clock in the afternoon.
We'd been out in the sun,
but I moved into the room,  
saying nothing.

I lay down and they followed,
flopped on carpets and sheets -
the three of us feline,
asleep in the light
and shadows
of silence. 

C. LJ Ireton 2024

The First Springtime Swim (ii)

It wasn't the equinox, 
the clocks, the dew on the grass
instead of the frost -

But the ache of my arms
in still water, my spirit yawning 

with my bones submerged

And curving -

That woke me, let me feel again,

under the lightening sky. 

C. LJ Ireton 2024

Dark earth

I released twilight wildflower seeds,
tiny, tiny, white,  
speckled
into the blackest brown soil,
damp and winter-devoid of life.

My hands were dark earth
from the stirring as I sat back
on my heels. The seeds were not yet
broken -
And they had become the night sky.

C. LJ Ireton 2024

The Sixth Hour

Have you ever seen night,
Where the Sun should be?
Like the depths were the sky
And the day a spirit fleeing
Beyond reach - 
Leaving only mystery
Shivering in our bones
With the unknowing cold.
There are no stars
That make a beautiful dark -
It is an unnatural pause
That roots our feet in question -
Not just fear
Of the sudden shadows over the hills
And under our skin.
We glance at each other,
Beneath our headscarves -
And we all feel it -
A fall,
Soul-deep sleeping,
A dawn. 

LJ Ireton 2024 

The Silence of the Birds

In the inhale of the earth,
The silence of the birds,
The watching for the white Sun - 
Dry words are breathing.

When the wind has torn the forests,
But the moorhens deem it safe
To walk on dirty water -
Write of their returning.

When the tree arms unbend
And creatures crawl curious,
Unsinging,
There is the poem, 
The tin grey cloud in its palm -
Eyes towards its absence. 

C. LJ Ireton 2024