Red Admirals – John Edwards

Red Admirals


the wind walked along the hedgerow this morning
picking up leaves in her teeth
and grinding them down into mush
to spit them out into red globules 
that might have resembled haws
or even hips to lie in wait with the 
detritus of fallen discarded dreams
of the future
 
the silence in the wind paused
exposing a gap where a deft sharp
edge had cleft the root stock of the
thorn allowing dreams to filter out 
of it’s core
letting them rise up and kiss the silence 
to feel the chill of the wind 
now bereft of any skill
until the fallen apples with their
ripening perfume assailed it and 
brought in the flutterbys to make 
the wind beautiful
a touch from them allowed 
the wind to speak again and
gave it back it’s very own taste 
for a life that could be alcoholic 
unless policed by the ivy clad
wall buzzing with perpetual life 


John Edwards