Tim Gardiner- Haiku Sequence

Phoenix rising

 

ashes to ashes –

a blackened shroud

lit by pink orchids

 

grey morning –

raindrops collect

in yellow-wort cups

 

tears running

down my cheek –

chicory flowers

 

dusting of fly ash –

a distinguished spider

needs good eyesight

 

the birch bulldozed –

banished bees return

to a promised land

 

mating balls writhe

by sandy burrows –

mining bees thrive

 

bush-crickets

humming in the rain –

power lines crackle

 

its daylight

cover blown –

the fox flees

 

by the jetty –

green lizards bask

in old tyre tracks

 

a sprayed siren

smothers the seawall –

‘owww she’s bad’

 

 

This haiku sequence was written about post-industrial ‘brownfield’ sites along the River Thames in south Essex, England. This brownfield land is of national importance for its populations of scarce and rare invertebrate species. At one site, West Thurrock Marshes, pulverised fuel (fly) ash (PFA) forms an important habitat for the declining brown-banded carder bee, sea aster mining bee, distinguished jumping spider and a range of wildflowers such as yellow-wort, chicory and marsh helleborine orchid. These brownfield sites are threatened by inappropriate residential and industrial development along the Thames and encroachment of trees due to a lack of active conservation management.