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Shallow Souls, North Downs Way

Amongst the shallow souls
Of oak, ash and elm
Uprooted beech and box
Tunnels
Parcelling light
Reaching wooded floor
Through toppled trunks.

Through decaying litter
Eroded scarp slope
Bewitched yew
And opportunistic birch;
Funghi a mass
Dusted flints
And twisted ankles.

Sickly, sinewy ash
Clusters of wild herbs
Wood rush and brambles
In fallen pockets
Reams of light,
Brightness to the isolated,
Hope on the murderous path.

Stephanie

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