This is how… We read the signs. We read
the gaps around the signs
that said STOP. We filled in forgiveness. We saw
ourselves inside the bottle. We splashed
water on our faces but the water was wine
and our faces grapes
crushed into bottles
in crates in lorries
in toddlers’ hands. We raced
around the plastic track. We smashed
glass to pass the time between making shards
and sweeping them up. We held
our dreams then let them slip like lids
that spilt into piles of lids… we saw the world
Daniel Clark is vegan for the animals. His poems and stories have appeared in Acumen, Ethel Zine, Spelt and The Sunlight Press, and he co-edits Briefly Zine. He performed eco-poetry at COP26 and tweets @dang_clark.