I used to take hedgerows for granted. Especially the scruffy undergrowth parts near the path. Then one day I looked more closely and realised it was teeming with plant life. So many species all together. Then the thought came that might be more life in this little section of hedgerow than in the rest of the entire universe. Also someone once told me that there was as much space inside a cell as outside. But I probably misheard that.
The Hedgerow
The hedgerow’s green
the way the sky is blue
in a drawing by a child.
Closer up the browns
of last year’s bracken show
then flowers at the base
violet primrose
bluebells pinks
nettles wrapped in thorns
multitoned the veins
of leaves and roots
the hairy stems
and then below
the surface lies
expanding space
and living parts
vaguely recognised
from diagrams in school
and then those things
inferred by maths
described by metaphor
energies unseen
and after these
all the chart is blank.
So now I think
a cell is small
the way a hedgerow’s green