The Sunday Poem: Happenstance by Maya C Popa

Who knows what night they landed here,

the geese in the adjacent field, 

craning their necks and coming up empty 

in ground not yet greening.  

They hear the water rushing under snow,

the great slopping rivers of chance  

easing some constricting force 

this March, which is the month we’ll meet.

We’ll meet – isn’t that extraordinary to think, 

and play back streetlamps 

casting sheen through evening mist, 

a spotlight just ahead of where I’m headed.

Maya C Popa’s next collection, If You Love That Lady, is due to be published by Picador in January 2027  

Illustration by Chris Riddell