The limb shatters its handshake, 
Strews a hazard of caresses across the earth, 
A dozen chance gestures cursing the shadows. 
On the singe of the forest floor, the pitch woodwind 
Of splinters plays out its waste ending. Yet, 
By the breezes, there are almost infinite beginnings 
Of touch, such commonplace cures that by our loyal sighs 
Summoned and a humble eternity, the sapling’s 
Gentle grip alters into a prayer for perfection. 
Let the light perfect this lone heartwood 
From an omen to an intimate, the pairing trunk’s 
Ring of afterworlds restated by the whispering 
Crown in the courage of its sunlight. 

Inspired by the Stop.Watch. film Severed, The Deracinater and The Isle created by Simon Woolham  

Commissioned for Stop.Watch. 

Melanie Challenger’s first collection of poems, Galatea (2006), won the Society of Authors’ Eric Gregory Award. She is Creative Fellow at the Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity at University College London, where she is working on a non-fiction project, Extinction. As Arts Council International Fellow for the British Antarctic Survey, she spent 2007-8 summer season researching in Antarctica.