Poetry 16 September 2020 Omen A new poem by Will Eaves Getty Sign UpGet the New Statesman\'s Morning Call email. Sign-up After the wind stops, we are sloshed to and fro in the silence like drowned ducklings or a photograph developing in its tray. Harder and harder to avoid, these images of aftermath and no reply: a still garden where the blossom neither fails nor fruits, the seedlings never push up from the root, the bee never docks in the colour-blind flower. Will Eaves is a novelist and a poet. His latest book, Broken Consort: Essays, reviews, and other writings, is published by CB Editions. › The pandemic makes it harder, but footballers have always found a way to behave badly This article appears in the 18 September 2020 issue of the New Statesman, Planet Covid