ELEVEN VARIATIONS ON A HEADSTONE IN HIGHGATE

 

I

Teetering on the brink

of a blue poppy, a bee.

Melancholy over a mossy

headstone, a white cat.

II

One, two, three crows

space out on a headstone

like undertakers having a laugh

in a sun-kissed bench.

III

A madman sings " Vesti

la giubba" at a headstone.

The pouring rain on the grass

sings along  as well

the wind sighing through

the ash trees leaves.

IV

A lizzard slithered across

the tall grass in blue dew,

the yellow star thistles.

Then climbed upon a headstone

and stayed put for flies.

V

A Red Admiral has landed

suavely on a headstone...

or rather slipped into

the colourful dreams

of a fox sleeping by?

VI

In shade of mother-of-pearl

shimmers the sky.

A goblet of daffodils

yellowing up a headstone

rain-stained and green.

In an oval portrait in sepia

a Victorian girl smiles.

VII

From nearby a din

of chainsaw and rooks.

A red squirrel upon a headstone

plays with conkers.

The morning fog

with a will-o'-the-wisp.

VIII

Handfasted to the moonlight

an owl broods over a headstone.

Her lilting hoot hardly starts 

a mouse that nibbles on dead bones.

IX

From golden to ashen the moon

glosses a brushwood glade.

A couple of smoochy foxes read

the name of a poet who died young

chiselled into a headstone.

X

The pattering of hail

against a headstone

not even perturbed

the reveries of a ghost

illumined by lightnings.

XI

Overrun with greenery,

bluebirds and white buttercups,

a headstone is no longer

the hallmark of worms.