Seed

Willow cut to its hidden houses
something secret furls,
unfurls its stem-self –

seed
slopes    slews 
under    crystal 
                 skin    
                 (its)
flesh
            blooms
to tone –
coralling a milky alumben
in water’s distress,
floats,

|stays|
                   alive
winds its silver
thread in brine –
fleshed frond
     &
secret,          

            still –

a
silver thread
pulls-up
       willow’s
Ochre
        curtain.

Truncated
Cut, yet
           I saw it —
willowGrove

                            willowGrief —

winter/flower/blossoms 

lie on wet ground 

bereft of their generations,

                           seed will lie

| seed will lie |

CHRIS MURRAY

Chris Murray is a poet and essayist. Her most recent book Gold Friend was published in 2020 by Turas Press, Dublin. Chris is working on her sixth book and loves the work that goes into making books. Chris founded 'Poethead' a site dedicated to platforming work by women poets, their translators, and editors. A member of Fired! Irish Women Poets and the Canon, she archives objects related to the canonical neglect of women poets at RASCAL, Queen's University, Belfast.