Lawrence Wilson: a poem

Empurpled

the first poppies have opened

dark murex purple greying lavender

fragile as mourning silk

with bumblebees drunk on nectar

I have shared last year's seeds with friends

I have scattered them on weedy verges

thousands of seeds as fine as dust

rooting in every crack of earth

this summer the town will be amethyst

and queen-mother mauve

and the deepest of malbec reds

and autumn's honey will grant us bright-edged dreams

Lawrence Wilson’s fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in Albedo One, Agenda, Gramarye, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Three Drops from a Cauldron, Stone, Root and Bone, Best of British, The Poetry of Roses, The Pocket Poetry Book of Marriage, The Pocket Poetry Book of Cricket, The Darker Side of Love, on Salon.com and in other journals and collections. His first two collections, The April Poems and Another April, are available on Amazon.