Poem: 'THE LICHEN MANUSCRIPT / MARS IS A DISTRICT OF SHEFFIELD'

THE LICHEN MANUSCRIPT /

MARS IS A DISTRICT OF SHEFFIELD

as I scratch paths
through lichen circles
on this Yorkshire wall,
a rain of memory
washes segments of
Martian landscape

the 1950’s books I read
said lichen grows on Mars,
as a child smearing dreams
I walked jungles of lichen
beneath violet Martian skies
watching a shimmer of canals
beaded with bright cities set
in a weave of strange forest,
tendrils of vermilion lichen
curling, burning with orchids
and crawling with the eyes
of man-tall insects

now,
as I scratch paths
through lichen circles
on this Yorkshire wall,
I dislodge the ruins
of Martian cities


Published in:
‘MEXICON no.6: THE PARTY – CON SOUVENIR BOOK’
(UK - June 1994)
‘FANTASY COMMENTATOR no. 45/46’ (USA - Dec 1994)
and quoted in
‘FOUNDATION no.68’ (Mars Special / Autumn 1996)
‘HANDSHAKE no.31A: H.G. WELLS 100 YEARS ISSUE’
(UK - Aug 1998)
and in the collection:
‘EUROSHIMA MON AMOUR’ Hilltop Press (UK-Oct 2000)