Penelope Shuttle

Our Backwater

Leaf-glitter
on railway bushes,

sun-glint
on wild celery,

emerald lichen
and manifest bracken,

without demands,
a caress from the truly naked—

careless glades of green,
sweet shambling round-trip train—

o advantages of circumnavigation,
april-fragrant thunders,

shifts of succulent light,
green-leaf triumph

even now
still pouring through

chinks
in the celestial arrangement . . .