Giles Goodland
The Descent
Look, we’re bigger now, and the world
proportionately smaller, but I can still
reflect, for instance, on those times dad
would drive the three of us into the hills
and stamp on a footpump as the skin
of each lilo gasped and flopped
in resurrection, and then leave us
in the river to twist downstream, steering
with flaps of the hands as we felt in
the belly the pulse of water over
gravel banks and through dark pools
and we saw things we could otherwise
never have hoped to see: kingfishers
copperplated against the silence; drowned
sheep, however fast we paddled, turning
eye-sockets towards us; a heron crouched
in priestly grey, beak held over the water
like a dagger; the plop of water rats;
draglines of barbed wire stretched inches
over our heads, and under hanging trees
we saw fleets of chub sleek as loaded
submarines, as meanwhile dad
would have driven to the nearest pub
and then to the next bridge downstream
pulling up punctually to pick us up
as we crested the last rapids,
and he’d be in such a good mood we could
all ride home on the roofrack. We come back
to such days as lost and taller relations.
The furrows they leave point to the sun.
Page(s) 23
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