Poetry by Clare Best

May

Silver-green broadbean in rows
by rows of lettuce seedlings silk,

white-veined emerald spinach
against fennel's earthy verdigris,

hedges bristling lime, olive, sage
where May is snowed this week;

a slanting tide of windpushed wheat
so green it's blue as ocean

under storm skies from the Wash
glaucous, leek-green, yellowing.