Taken from the collection Heathcliff Adrift, originally published in 2014 and now out in a new edition with Mayfly. Accompanying photos of the West Riding moorlands by Nick Small.

To the sky
we ran
and fell
the heather our mattress
the worms our witness –

young lungs burning.
Wet-backed,
soil soaked
mulch-coddled, copper puddled.
Dirt giggled and dizzy.

Fists of earth
raised, thrown –
fecund confetti
for a future union.
The rustling of life.

*

Heathcliff Adrift is a series of narrative poems that explore the imagined wanderings of an enduring anti-hero of literature. This new edition features previously unseen works, and has been published to coincide with the 200th birthday of Emily Brontë. Buy a copy here.