A Poem by Suzanne Iuppa

The Lek

The final frontier is tracked
to the brow of the moor
buff vegetation stitched into April sun
pale sedge/alluvial strafe
topless, treeless
one moment before lunch

freeze as several large black grouse dob in
straight necks, white rosettes for tails
so many males!
who start to parry, then sweep circles, and shake
deadly, thunder-stepping
riled-up muscle boys
Brylcreem black of their wings
bird-brain Darths
trying to expel their bad morning breath
the swollen red-eye marks raising the temp

somewhere undetected grey hens
watch a fundamental rite

violent/spectacular/laughable
they are oblivious to our two eyes—
pairs of hands and mouths
our forms unrecognisable in the Discovery.
Yes, we do wait for the animal
in such inhospitable places.

Suzanne Iuppa is a poet and conservationist living and working in the Dyfi Valley, mid Wales. Raised in the States, she came to the UK in the 1980s as a young person to study modern British poetry and countryside management. Poems have appeared in magazines such as Ambit, Slipstream, Good Dadhood, and Words for the Wild. She is currently Writer-In-Residence at Climate Cymru and is a featured writer in Robert Minhinnick's 2021 climate futures anthology Gorwelion/Shared Horizons.