The Discontent Scours the Land

The discontent scours the land
Racing the length of dry ravines
Where once fizzed
Joyous rivers of love unstoppable

Excoriates the sullen strife
And none walk safe
The streets filled with threats
Informed by neighbours

Hate flies over fences
Love is forced to worm its way
Through sticky knot-holes
The sly set snares for it

And the trade is all in pleasure
And the robbery of it
The taking the grasping the relish
Between two of rough rude taste

The frigid milk the frightened ones
And the scared at night cry
For the moon that is far fallen
That lies among the filthy wheelie bins.

Clive Donovan is the author of two poetry collections, The Taste of Glass (Cinnamon Press) and Wound Up With Love (Lapwing), and is published in a wide variety of magazines including Acumen, Agenda, Prole, Sentinel and Stand. He lives in Totnes, Devon, UK. He is a Pushcart and Forward Prize nominee for 2022’s best individual poems.