Thorn-apple, Göteborg, March 16th, 2003

thorn
apple

a dry
finding

a husk
and a rind

a dollop
of powerless poison
up

by
the abode of culture
signposted in
websafe
colours

if you look
at the snap...

(the barrelling
is extreme
as they said in a review
of my precious Kodak)

...to the right
of the stairs
is where it was

at a blurred
boundary
of the s-weed domain

where the sparrows
this fall
were crunching
goosefoot seeds

diverting
attention
from the eye
to the ear...

in that
mucked-about patch
of soil

never noticed

the thorn
apple

which just goes to show
the limits of attention

so this is
what it looks like

after a winter of snow
after nights and days
after shedding
any seeds it had

spent
all spent...

and it's certain
as certain can be
that some where
some day
it will be back
- if not this one, then its brother.