PETER RILEY

Prelude

Snow has settled in the lines
Of an old ridge-and-furrow system
Striping the gently sloping dark
Green fields, engrossed script
Of duration, repetition, authority
At which that calm baby in the shelf
That finds it so difficult to speak
Lowers an eyelid on the shrinking day
And suddenly says outright
The entire brochure of love and all.
Stay here before you fall.

Peter Riley