A brave new world

The village had been built jigsaw pretty,  
cottages were white washed and thatched,  
they lined the lazy lanes and quiet roads,  
centered by a pagan cross  
daubed with yellow roses  
and vibrant climbers.  

I caught the cold air, the last  
to leave the pub, it bolted shut  
behind me. The light didn't bleed  
onto the night, stars crowded  
like snow flakes over my hands  
between my fingers, wrapped  
all around me, only me.  
 
Such stumbling quiet can only be heard  
by the drunk, I was inside its vacuum  
carried blind by beauty.  
A wrought iron bench was waiting,  
its arms welcomed me and curled intricate  
fingers over my shoulders.  
 
At first I could only sense movement
approaching  as timid as a shy duck
being enticed by bread.  
A rustle beneath a hedge,  
the earthenware scrape  
of a dragged plant pot.  
 
The night had begun to trust me  
its light came out from corner clouds  
watching roof tops fall on to gardens  
even shadowed doorways shifted  
in to grey-scale. That's when I heard  
the chatter, everything spoke in an old  
language, garden forks talked in rhyme  
as they turned over flower beds,  
plants self pruned and shifted positions  
whispering in a dialect of dark green.  
 
Every garden, the whole village was alive,  
fallen leaves where being raked, blades of grass  
snipped short, plants were discussing  
how they should arrange themselves.  
A discarded coke-can tapped on the side  
of a rubbish bin that snapped open  
to swallow.  
 
I tried to move for a closer look  
but the iron bench moved inside me,  
thin needles had entered my skin,  
energy surged  
across the connection.  
 
I could feel every movement,  
every part of the village,  
the cold brick of the cottages, the warmth  
of bodies as they slept in their beds,  
the padded footsteps of cats as the strutted  
the tops of garden walls.  
 
I began to panic, a body rejecting  
its donor heart, images flashed,  
my mind a flicker book, billions  
of people connected to the earth  
energy drawn from one to another.  
I could see the whole planet trying  
to heal itself, using the created world,  
man made object colliding, collaborating.  
 
I could see the whole plan  
as it mapped itself to my mind.  
I relaxed and allowed myself to go deeper,  
It was then I heard her voice.