Heart of a Snowman

By David Milligan-Croft.

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Imagine yourself as a snowflake –

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One of billions

Of unique hexagonal prisms

Falling from the sky.

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Then we settle – 

Some on the highway

To be churned into slush.

.

Maybe on a mountain top

As an accomplice

To an avalanche.

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Perhaps, I am the heart 

Of a snowman,

Or the dusting on a leaf of a tree.

.

But when the sun awakens,

To warm the earth,

Don’t we all melt and disappear,

.

As though we were never here?

But we haven’t gone,

We have merely transformed.

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Seeping into Mother Earth

To begin our journey

All over again.

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Things I stole from Sylvia.

My daughter and I went to visit Sylvia Plath’s grave again in Heptonstall, West Yorkshire at the weekend. (I know, it’s just one thrill ride after another at our house.)

It was a stunningly sunny day and I took the liberty of stealing a couple of leaves from her grave as a memento.

Now, some people might consider that tantamount to desecration.

I must add, however, that if you look at the picture I took of her grave back in March versus the one I took last Saturday, you could argue that I was merely ‘pruning’.

31st March 2021

17th July 2021

Whatever side of the felonious fence you sit upon, here’s a photo of Exhibit A.

Anyhoo, after sticking the leaves in my sketchbook and pondering them for a while, I decided to write a poem about them.

So, here it is

Lady Lazarus

by David Milligan-Croft.

A leaf stolen

from Sylvia Plath’s grave.

I wonder if the atoms

from her decaying, mortal flesh

have permeated terra firma?

Her nutrient-rich essence

seeping into the soil

absorbed by the roots,

rising up through the stem,

branching out into the veins.

Verdant leaves vignette to aubergine,

unfurl to the scintilating light,

as though – with eyes closed –

she stretches out her slender arms

to the glorious, morning sun.