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David Wheatley

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The Pine Marten

The Pine Marten

The Pine Marten

There is blood on the snow
and a trickle of rowan berry juice

on his bib where the pine marten
stands for a moment like a man.

What colour should I turn, slipping
after him into the woods, his trail

gone cold and his scent lost
among the dead leaves and tree bark?

Elusive familiar: there is no reason
why we need meet. Will we

have so much as been here at all?
I too have never seen my own face.

© 2010, David Wheatley
From: A Nest on the Waves
Publisher: The Gallery Press, Oldcastle

David Wheatley

David Wheatley

(Ireland, 1970)

David Wheatley was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1970. He grew up outside the city in the seaside town of Bray, and later attended Trinity College Dublin, where he wrote a PhD on the poetry of Samuel Beckett. He is now a lecturer at the University of Hull, England. These facts, bare as they are, encode many of the main vectors of his poetry. His date of birth positions him after the great generat...

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The Pine Marten

There is blood on the snow
and a trickle of rowan berry juice

on his bib where the pine marten
stands for a moment like a man.

What colour should I turn, slipping
after him into the woods, his trail

gone cold and his scent lost
among the dead leaves and tree bark?

Elusive familiar: there is no reason
why we need meet. Will we

have so much as been here at all?
I too have never seen my own face.

From: A Nest on the Waves

The Pine Marten

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