Mary Anne Smith

Mary Anne Smith’s work has been recognised in both national and international competitions, most recently including first prize in the 6th O’Bheal Five Words competition, and first and second prizes in Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry competitions.

Rural Living

One last time, before he leaves,
Hare writes his name along the skyline;
the twin strokes in the H of his ears,
the cursive ‘a’ of his pale brown face,
the ‘r’ in his resting rear legs, then a
brief glimpse of the sans-serif ‘e’ of his
neat white tail, and he is gone.
 
A cloud of purple Quaking-grass lies adrift
like a piece of fallen dusk, and with its
final breath speaks in a shiver of whispers
through the Fescue and Timothy,
Canary Grass and Cat’s-tail, Cock’s-foot
Dog’s Wheat, Holy Grass and Hare’s Tail.
 
In a blur of striated moth-wings the Lark rises,
following Icarus’ flight-path to the sun;
answering the call of the void, he offers up
one last high-pitched, unbroken chant for
his old territory as it disappears beneath him,
 
falling away
 
to lawns and a new order. They don’t have to
spell it out, but of course, they do. This is
after all what they call rural living,
this uniform co-existence, marked out
in lines of freshly sprung-up signs, all
neatly labelled and site-appropriate:
 
Skylark Heights
Old Meadow Way
Hare Court.
 

Mary Anne Smith

Tel: 07754 701278
 
Mary Anne Smith website
 
e-mail Mary Anne Smith

Copyright© of all poems featured on this site remains with the poet