Bio
Clarissa Aykroyd grew up in Victoria, Canada and is now a resident of London, UK. Her work has appeared in The Ofi Press, Lighthouse, The Island Review, The Missing Slate, And Other Poems, Ink Sweat & Tears and in anthologies, and she was a contributor to Ireland's The Gathering Poem. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of a blog about poetry and poets, The Stone and the Star (http://thestoneandthestar.blogspot.co.uk/).
Clarissa Aykroyd
Mise en scène
In years gone by the estate agent had
confronted the inevitable pile
of leaves and the tedious dead body.
But this was new, this silence like the end
of all music, the basket and flowers
scattered like a tiny garden earthquake.
The bright green eyes of the head gardener
were nowhere, his teeth like a picket fence
– a memory only. There was of course
the pond. Best not drag it now. Wait until
the spring, till ice has come and gone. There's more
that comes alive in April than you think.