A Poem by Mathew Lyons

The straw child

the straw child hides in the woods
trespassing on a wildness
he knows not to be his

the straw wife flew away
into the indigo and bone
of a harvest moon on a harvest evening

the straw child watches from the wet black woods
the straw man rages the fields into fire
the elderflower wasting

the straw child sees it all
hidden, watching
what do years and seasons mean to him?

a child of light and water
remembering the greenness in him
the stolen water    the burning stubble

straw child
last scion of grass’s kingdom
he thinks it is his loneliness that rots him

Mathew Lyons is a London-based writer, poet, and historian. His poems have been published by Atrium Poetry, Dawn Treader, Dust Magazine, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Reliquiae, and Under the Radar, among others.