Colin Rowbotham
Pole Hill
An obelisk stands on a hill
Near Chingford. I discovered this
When I and my small daughter
Had some time to kill.
A metal notice, overlaid
With drab, official paint, proclaims
That longitude from Greenwich
Once ran through its base
But now has shifted nineteen feet.
I bumped the pushchair to the east,
We wheeled and squinted northwards
Through grey rags of sleet.
Perhaps the silly Toytown name
Of Chingford prompted me to say:
‘Why don’t we do a journey
Round the world today?’
I saw a road that, from my sad
Childhood suburb, leapt and spanned
The dirty Mersey, swept into
Another land
Existing in the mind
And nowhere else - like this zero line
Which mostly ghosts its furrow
Through sand, sea and ice.
‘We’d make it back for teatime, love.’
My child was not amused. We shoved
Off, down to where her mother
Would be missing us.
Page(s) 23
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