Richard Tipping‘s ‘Lord Muck’

from Instant History

Picturing England
Headlands in a fattening breeze
The fragrant country
Its dark wet soil.

This pot boiled over long ago
Oozing migrants
Threading identities
Bicycle couriers urgent as bells.

Rough winds shock blossom
petals heap pink snow
Swirl up in gusts black taxi
Smut to the gutter press.

The history winners get written by
War’s cut bloodlines of before
Lord Muck must have stamped
this tongue with claws.