Wessex Wood
A perfect diversion, to leave the lane and step
under this canopy, to follow the stream
and find bluebells, scroll-headed ferns,
yellow primrose at the mossy roots of trees;
then a sudden stench, and here, a Fox,
some days dead, coat slackened, eye sockets
picked clean; death has come to steal a breath
from the mouth of spring.
Egg
I tread carefully over tarmac and grass,
cup treasure in my palms, leave
playtime behind;
she stands in the doorway, hand on hip,
my approach long since noted
in her regular sweep.
‘The baby bird will die,’ she says,
‘its mother will leave because of your scent.’
I tip it, warm and blue, into the nest,
walk to the classroom, my face hot and wet,
the world off kilter
Roy Marshall lives in Leicestershire where he works in adult education. His poems have appeared in many publications in the UK and Ireland and been featured in ‘Poems in The Waiting Room,’ New Zealand.
Roy blogs at https://roymarshall.wordpress.com/about/
Abegail Morley 
Always a joy to read work by @RoyMarshall2.
Two very thought provoking and evocative poems. Egg reminds me of my childhood, when I thought no living thing should die. Some lessons are difficult to grasp.
Two really strong poems – the shocking way that we find out that nature pulls us up short and nothing is quite as it seems. Very real and evocative. Thanks for a great read.
These two strong poems work well together. The first is presented matter-of-factly, and the second, for me, is filled with that This-Can’t-Be-The-Way-It-Is emotion that can hit both children & adults on certain occasions — and it never gets easier.