Graeme Hetherington: Two Poems

River Tagus, Spain

Close to the river’s surface, birds

As sunlit-white as holy doves

With their shadows and reflections

Search for fish, flutter swiftly to

A hovering halt when found. Then wings

Drawn tightly in dive bullet-straight,

Concentrated to three-in-one,

As I aspire to focus self,

Streamline, intensify the hunt

Through consciousness to hook a poem.

On Time
(George’s Bay, St Helens)

On a grey day, the first of March

To be exact, limbs heavy, tired,

I felt life ebb and drain away

As I looked at the water, still,

Too easily crossed, heard crows caw in

A gum whose red flowers dulled the more

I searched to make the black shapes out,

Guiltily waiting for the hours

To pass, for the evening new, when

It would be officially announced

That autumn had arrived, and thus

It was alright to feel this way.

Graeme Hetherington