Gorse & Fog

The streetlit car park is edgy with gorse
rising in a black broken tide
against the fogged-in city --
history of gaps, heraldry
of burnt fields, hidden caches, graves
unmarked fox and badger-holes
in sour earth, lank grass,
the written-off, the always
missing, fogged with growth
healthy and rank, the dogs
and torches gone back, whistles and shouts
through the deadfall years
footnotes treading on footnotes
while, just down the hill,
the blotted out city hums
and goes through its gears.