Wild Garlic

Jen Hadfield

it was

a great trip, though the comedown

was this terrible thirst

for rain, my

mouth a limed

hollow, and all night

the garlic-loud glade

repeated on me in psychedelic

gusts: the forest floor was

a crackling

sea, and the sea was on fire

with glossy, green flames.

A hundred limbs did rot

and drop from loose sleeves

of moss—

a civilization

of straight lines fell—deleted by li,

and I heard the bark of my long-

lost deep-green feral Gran—

keep your trap shut

about this, breathe not a word

to anyone

Jen Hadfield was the youngest-ever winner of the T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize in 2008. Since then, she has worked as a poet, a writing tutor, and an artist. Her most recent book is Storm Pegs: A Life Made in Shetland.
Originally published:
September 9, 2024

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