“an exaltation”

by Jen Feroze

Two days in this place, and London 

is strange as moonscape.

The dirt track stretching

away over the hill;

the quiet after the morning’s joyous

exhale of church-bell rounds; 

bowls of sun-struck eggs

on the kitchen windowsills

and I think those are celandines

starring the grass like fallen coins.

There are eggs out here too, speckled

in little, leaf-lined hollows, 

hidden as we cross to the stile,

and protected by plump-feathered parents.

It’s almost lunchtime, and there’s 

the promise of warm bread.

We leave that field behind your mother’s house

with garlands of song around our ankles.

Jen Feroze lives by the sea in Essex, UK, with her husband and two small sleep thieves. She's inspired by the seemingly everyday, and likes to write with a stubborn upswing of hope in her work. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in The Madrigal, Capsule Stories, The 6ress and Hyacinth Review, among others. Her first collection, The Colour of Hope, was published in 2020.