1

Tack up a screen before dawn and ready the inks.
There is a country which does not exist and which must be shown.
Steady the ingredients.


2

A tunnel of trees. My brother and I on the top
of an empty double-decker in Derbyshire.
The absence-from-home of summer
becoming a scab to be picked over. The bus pulled up

by a pub, as the greenery scratching
at the window ended and we were given a field
with a horse and a dog and red child
in it, waving.

Sunlight was there like a wall
and halved everything. In my head I was singing
This is Happening This is Happening This is Happening.
A boy bounced his way down the aisle

and started smoking, when time
...