OCTOBER AFTERNOON

Posted by Admin on 25 May 2006, 12:00 am

There was goose-talk behind the hedge,
and on a nearby hill a power-sander,
refurbishing against Nor-Westers,
proclaimed its worth with brash
intrusive sound.
Discarded acorns and pine-needles lay
underfoot, and rose-hips stippled a
warm pattern among changing greens.
Frantic-winged wild-fowl sought
cover in hazy and esoteric depths.
A chestnut fell.
Across adjacent fields a car’s roof
flashed its heliograph along an ancient
way – a route known to Phoenicians ere
the D-Day of Vespasian.
Farther on, a goat, benign in bondage,
chewed the grass within its circle, and
ponies, sensing empty pockets, turned
to me unsociable tails.
Beyond a farm, where ferns grew from
stone walls, and a dolphin vane was
doldrum-still, the view encompassed
the meeting of marsh and chill-blue
sea, and a lone yacht stoutly
pretending that the Solent’s calm
water yet reflected the cloud-drift
of an August day.