Wilderness Poem by Robbie Brereton

A rabbit’s hole a landmine set to blow,
twigs are prodding bayonets that force “GO”.

Plastic bottles are mortar rounds fired,
a crumbling brick a bomb, primed and wired.

The thrush’s birdsong is a screaming shell,
A churned up puddle, the Somme’s muddy hell.

Crystallised breath, smoke from a burning fire,
spider’s webs are tangled strings of barbed wire.

Pinecones are a pin pulled hand grenade,
Fallen planks of wood, are trench digging spades.

Littered leaves are corpses, machine gunned down,
A trodden ant’s nest, a fire stormed town.

The stump of a tree, a captured outpost,
Creaks in the night, a restless soldier’s ghost.