Red kites

A poem

A sea mist blows inland; settles heavy on the fields. Lying low across the rows of dirt, just as we did that day. The day you came to find me and we meant to lose our way.

I wore your shirt as we walked to the place where I’d grown our love, without you. I spread my heart out by your feet and we held each other in the grass; The clouds pressed down like blankets, covering our nakedness.

You swore whatever came to pass, you’d remember what this was. With red kites circling above, we took our now – because there is no when.

You breathed my name into the breeze; I watched it scatter and blow away. Then felt you drawing on my back, tracing those words in the dew on my skin. But tears hung, humid, in the air as you moved on and the mist drew in.

© Amy Knight 2020

Inspiration for Red Kites was taken from The Birds by Elbow.

With thanks to The Poet Laureate Simon Armitage for inviting Guy Garvey into your shed and for sharing that chat on BBC Radio 4 and BBC iPlayer for the podcast ‘The Poet Laureate has gone to his shed’.