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 Reedmace rustle in the wind, their chocolate
heads
like cut-out fingers against speared leaves.
Convolvulus along the pond’s embankment
trumpets its white flowers against the green.
Purple loosestrife runs wild seducing bees.
A speckled wood butterfly, velvet brown,
wings spread out, lies sleepily on burdock,
its eyespots winking in the light.
Mints grows
in a watery bed.
Above its head
a dragonfly, blue brilliance, jerks here and there.
 Alders rise above the park, their branches
like brushes waving at the water life,
greening the Coal and Fish offices, sea of
brick,
sculpted curve moving gracefully
away;
crack willow emeralds the
grey.
By the canal a duckling stretches, flops,
adjusts its wobbly legs.
A coot, mid stream
sits on a floating nest, and from the reeds
a heron takes off, flap flapping towards
its prey.
On the tow path cyclists weave
their wheels between the walkers and the dogs.
Canal boats cast their colours through the hedge
while water gushes
in the lock.
Angela Inglis
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