This dry summer and the Earth is cracked

Opening rifts around the more recent

Graves where my mother and sister are buried

So riven and shrunken the soil

Their headstone rocks to my weight and

There is nothing to depend upon

Yet still I’ll tarry

Sketch the scene

Walk the churchyard

Wonder at the Cypresses

Open the Great King James

On Daniel

Envied for honour 

Sunk in the anchoress ocean

Where the lions

Could but swim

Out here this hot summers day

I am flailing in the light

Petalled in the Sun

My portion of life

Lesser than theirs

Yet vivid lives