HANNAH STONE 

Orchard work party

Sam is six. His overalls are rooted beneath his wellies

with elastic straps. Sam arrived on the tag-along, pedalled

by his dad, uphill from the station on the bendy lane.

On Sam’s hat, red squirrels chase through oak trees;

it keeps him warm while he learns how

to plant willow twigs (find the nub of bud on the stick,

make sure it’s angled upwards).

Sam’s gloved hands pile woodchip

round newly rooted saplings,

to keep them cosy till the spring time comes.

Sam likes honey on his porridge, from the bees snoozing

in hives behind the shed.

Sam’s life is sweet as the honeycake he chews.

Between bites he chats to no-one and everyone

about the embers dropping with the rustflakes

from the potbellied stove, round which we sit, cradling

hot mugs of soup in muddied hands.

Fire is ‘his fave’, we learn.

Sam is bud and leaf, ember and flame,

feather and flint. Wick to the core.  

Hannah Stone is the author of Lodestone (Stairwell Books, 2016), Missing Miles (Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2017), Swn y Morloi (Maytree Press, 2019) and several collaborations, including Fit to Bust with Pamela Scobie (Runcible Spoon, 2020). She convenes the poets/composers forum for Leeds Leider, curates Nowt but Verse for Leeds Library, is poet theologian in Virtual Residence for Leeds Church Institute and editor of the literary journal Dream Catcher. Contact her on hannahstone14@hotmail.com for readings, workshops or book purchases.

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