he saw the daffodils

He saw the Daffodils.


He saw the daffodils.
Flashes of yellow against the brown and grey
Of trees still sleeping.
embryonic leaves unborn.

He saw a sunset.
Slivers of scarlet and orange and ultramarine
Across the horizon
Of northern shores

He saw a castle.
Ruins standing for centuries just north of Perth
His usual route
But today he saw them.

He saw an eagle.
Hovering in the sky, its prey already marked
For extinction
Both beautiful and deadly

He saw it all
Not in smoky bar rooms or on flickering screens,
But the other things
But things he’d never learned to miss

He heard the clock
And said – I thought that clock was electric
The clock that ticked
Away the Minutes of his life