coralled gates the trees no more

Reuben Woolley

for the Great Barrier Reef, officially declared dead after 25 million years

coloured

birds don’t fly here 
not even 
	                & a dry 
time we have

white a forest

moves 
	                no longer

	                no

birds	       no

song

coloured

birds don’t fly here

rust & old machines

Reuben Woolley

here we fall

                                 the same

the stories 
of 
strange.their shining 
faces broken 
now / feel

the opening 
the silent doors 
on doors unfold

                                 it’s time 
to haul out 
our lost pieces

our histories 
of shattered shell.come 
to it then 
& in our dreaming

Reuben Woolley has been published in various magazines including Tears in the Fence, The Lighthouse Literary Journal, The Interpreter’s House, Domestic Cherry, The Stare’s Nest and Ink Sweat and Tears. His collection, the king is dead  was published in 2014 with Oneiros Books and a chapbook, dying notes, in 2015 with Erbacce Press. Runner-up: Overton Poetry Pamphlet competition and the Erbacce Prize in 2015. A new collection on the refugee crisis, skins, was published by Hesterglock Press, 2016. 
He pretends to be busy editing the online magazines: I am not a silent poet and The Curly Mind.

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