Two poems

Meeting wild

 There was an instantaneous moment of recognition
when the sparrow, disturbed from pecking
insectivores, panicked and flew
through the gap in the hedge, over the gate
and straight into the crook of my arm
and back out again.
And as I felt the impact of nothing,
weightless feather and bone,
reversing on a handbrake turn,
I saw what the bird saw,
something to be feared,
in the memory of every bird,
since humans first set traps, 
sharpened tools, lit fires.

Rescue from the Blue Crevasse

 She wondered how ice could smell like this,
as she hung inside the glacier,
harnessed to the end of a rope,
trussed up like a spider's prey,
waiting in silence for the yank on the line,
curious that everything beyond the chance
opening above her head felt so remote.
Then through the frozen layers, muffled voices
came to her and suddenly the winch jerked
her upwards inch by inch.
She wondered later why she'd volunteered to be lowered
down, for at any moment the crevasse could have snapped shut.
Glaciers after all carry their debris for an awfully long time,
swallowed whole.

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