The garden still looks wintry cold beneath the metallic sky.
Blades of yellow-tipped grass
Shiver in the unrelenting breeze,
Fragile threads of honeysuckle tap heads upon a wall of stone,
Dew drips from exposed rose thorn.
Last year’s mighty buddleia is naked save for random frills of freshness,
Revealing rough-barked ankles and the green-damp fence.
The twisted hazel cowers
Beneath leylandii towers.
Warm red against green, a single camellia bloom draws the focus.
Spears of daffodil and crocus
Tear through softened earth in the shadow of a willow.
Robins feast on a hebe pillow.
Silver smoke drifts from next-door’s crackling fire,
The son-et-lumière
Of breakthrough sun and birdsong choir.
