Manchester in Haikus

by Ellie Ormerod

Polyphony, Volume 2, Issue 2

First published April 2020, Manchester

---

A choked skyline; the necks of towers, gripped by thickening smog. Penthouse dwellers and bonsai trees on balconies taste fresh air from rooftop lairs. Roaming bodies, like leaves swept from curbs, cut from the branch, left to decay. A cup filled with change, chewed gum, fag ends, rainwater tips into the gutter. A blow to the nest left the world listening to the hum of the hive. A rain-soaked bee shakes itself off, beating its wings again fearlessly.

---