Ivory sheep

Ivory sheep in the morning sun crowded the summit of the cold brown wold
A man bent over a spade, digging earth from a dry bank
dumbfounded by phenomenology dreaming of sultana pudding

Cold red dye

Cold dyes leaves with a red hand
shades of crimson, vermilion, oxblood and ruby
purple wrestles green incarnadine cold

Imaginary taxonomies

I think I have nothing to say, so I say nothing
Lines are the names of cryptic species in imaginary taxonomies
ornus, or as the pinax more peculiarly, fraxinus bubula

Breakages

Broken bricks to make a road
Broken years to make a life
Broken winter to make a spring

Rose cold

Camellias flower after frost Souvenir de Bahuaud Litou who was this remembered rose tendre, tardif, imbriquée
Thorn wands haunted by rose-breasted batchelor chaffinches
But the van still hit the dove, grey feathers in a mirror

The alders

The alders are cloaked in thin russet veils, catkin coats against the cold
the east wind puts knives between the sun and earth
some hold out their hands, palm up, wide ides in meetings