Badger fox hedgehog muntjac
moth mosquito blackfly midge
a headless barn its sides exploded
some eyeless houses their shingles shot.

Downed owl kestrel hawk and rook
a footless car laid out on bricks while
ribboned along the broken hard shoulder
entrails of tyres their black guts busted.

My road bludgeons our way through the land
past colonies of new-builds perched on hills
slices its way through cowering fields and
a knotweed of glowing gantries and lamps.

Cat’s eyes are pecked by gang of crows
dispirited the earth recoils as I pass and
staring as I am through straw-stained glass
my eyes go unmet by a cortege of trees.