Green Man Short-listed Salopian Poetry Society Open Competition 2015

Green Man

In the garden you were,

where fairies dined on blackcurrants,

and slept on pillows of moss.

And we sang

Lero, lero, lilli burlero,

Lilli burlero, bullen a la,

as we prodded brown-fur caterpillars

with our currant- purpled fingers.

In Chelmsley Wood you were,

cracked from twigs,

slipping from bluebell stems.

And we sang

Robin Hood, Robin Hood

Riding through the glen,

as we looked for Robin and Little John

in the stream between the trees.

Beside the river Cole you were,

where baby mice slept in nests of pale grass

beneath rusting corrugated iron.

And we sang

One two three four five

Once I caught a fish alive,

as we sniffed for rats in the shallows

before christening our dollies.

In nettles you were,

and in the rubbed dock to cure their sting;

in droops of elderflower,

in swoops of May-flower.

And we sang

I’ll sing you one O

Green grow the rushes O,

as we stroked soft innards of conker-shells,

found beneath brittle-sweet leaves.