Refusal

For her,
acceptance
of that prognosis
would have been like
offering one’s hand
to a grandmaster
long before
the final move.


Depression

In a world like this
it’s easily assumed
that all the homes
covered in snow
must be well
insulated
and warm inside.


The Globalised Dodo

Bones were bought
from collections
around the world,

constructed
into something
less than the bird

our ancestors
killed off:
a bird that never was.

Prejudice

The pinecone's scales
create a surface
like an armadillo’s shell,
so no bugs or vermin
get in.

It's holding on
to its seeds
till they’re grown
and then 
will open up
but only fully
when all of them
are gone.

Migrating Words

I could not help but think
it isn’t a bird you idiot, it’s us
when reading Tennyson’s words,
“a climate changing bird”*.

*From line one of Tennyson’s Demeter and Persephone.
 

Tristan Moss


If you have any thoughts on these poems, Tristan Moss would be pleased to hear them.