In anger

by Mandy Haggith

Celandines open to sun,
a bank of primroses makes me smile,
violets offer new blue splashes
and geese skein overhead in hieroglyphs
rhyming with arctic nesting sites. 

I choose to be happy with these things
despite bombing in the middle east,
social media trolling,
austerity, Brexit, covid and all the other
follies of politicians I did not vote for. 

Anger is not beautiful, elegant or graceful
and a poem without these aspects
seems a lesser thing.
A moment spent in anger
begs the balance of wonder. 

The world deserves praise, 
words wielded beyond voice,
beyond human limitations and iniquities.
I feel the fury – here it is; I offer it to you:
burnt forest, polluted sea, poisoned children. 

Now I take it back,
put it aside
and offer you this instead:
celandine, primrose, violet
and a carolling of pink-footed geese.