Down the Lane
Created | Updated Jun 21, 2008
One end sags a derelict barn
Leaning dangerously
Corrugated iron roof
Intricate lace of rust and holes
Creaking on bent wooden stilts
Bales of rotting straw
High teetering towers
Rolls and rectangles
Home to rodents, insects, mould
Undermined, overgrown
Guarded all around
Ground elder, tall nettles
Sticky Willie smothers the stinging jungle
Dragging it down
Vying for the light
Behind is a hay field
Gone to thistles
A heap of black polythene
Old silage wrap
Polypropylene rope
Fringed with ragwort
A stream murmurs
Beside the lane, shaded
hiding its fish from hungry herons
Beneath brambles, living trees
Dead, skeletal elms - listing
Overhead a buzzard wheels
Its haunting call, high and clear
Song birds pause, mid-note
Rabbits crouch waiting
A rustle of foliage fills the hush
Against pearly blue, clouds barely move
In a slow slow dance of seven veils
The westering sun, peeps coyly out
Poplars shiver with delight
Clap their leaves in soft applause
Leaning dangerously
Corrugated iron roof
Intricate lace of rust and holes
Creaking on bent wooden stilts
Bales of rotting straw
High teetering towers
Rolls and rectangles
Home to rodents, insects, mould
Undermined, overgrown
Guarded all around
Ground elder, tall nettles
Sticky Willie smothers the stinging jungle
Dragging it down
Vying for the light
Behind is a hay field
Gone to thistles
A heap of black polythene
Old silage wrap
Polypropylene rope
Fringed with ragwort
A stream murmurs
Beside the lane, shaded
hiding its fish from hungry herons
Beneath brambles, living trees
Dead, skeletal elms - listing
Overhead a buzzard wheels
Its haunting call, high and clear
Song birds pause, mid-note
Rabbits crouch waiting
A rustle of foliage fills the hush
Against pearly blue, clouds barely move
In a slow slow dance of seven veils
The westering sun, peeps coyly out
Poplars shiver with delight
Clap their leaves in soft applause
