Watching

Suddenly bored I took to watching from a window
But with eyes closed, forehead resting on icy glass
Hearing birch leaves hiss like maracas, then fall from a blow
Of northern frost riding the hills, chilling as it speeds past
I imagined my town was gone; instead of a line
Of crimson, lego-like houses, just grassy,reed-strewn banks
Rose from the river, snaking its way like the spine
Of a jellyfish: fluid, writhing and when silent ranks
Of fog march over its valley, not there at all.
And instead of the neat, ordered park where children play
A tangled mass of bramble, thistle and grass so tall
Its lower reaches shiver, forever hidden from the light of day
Even my house was gone, I am standing in the air
Rocking a little in the wind, the skin of my face
Sometimes caressed by the wing of a bird, the glare
Of a slightly closer sun, the yawning space
That looms above. I open my eyes and the image is gone
A clock ticks, heating hums; yet I know still beneath
This man-made calm, the powerless, cloistered sun
The long grass still struggles to grow and wild things snap their
teeth.