Ground into blood meal

fine powder

red dust

scattered across soil

 

Fist full after

fist full

bloody fingers and palms

cast from heavy steel buckets

 

Blood meal

blood meal

ground down body and soul

shame to be so discarded

ground up and dumped

 

Its incidental

 

fertilizer for the flower beds

fine clusters of rose petals

rose heads

sweet scent

captivating in passing

 

Seasonal

Cyclic decay and rejuvenation

from the earth and hand

a bounty dragged out

backwards from a cornucopia

 

Plants from blood

Animals fed to animals

man eats all the animals

and discards responsibility

with arrogant contempt for

the planet and

fellow man

 

 

 

I feel the late summer

in my blood

as the heat of the sun

colours the hazel of

my eyes

 

From acceleration of

the verdant fertile

to the drying coldness

of the last days

of winter

 

Everything knows

that this lies ahead

late summer

to midwinter

full life to death