John Torrance
Annunciation, Hampton Poyle
The old house burned down years ago, its timbers
all reduced to ash, and the ash to earth.
Here for as long as anyone remembers
empty hearth has gaped at empty hearth
and owls have wafted through the missing casements,
scouring rains have blanched the blackened hall
and rats and nettles colonized the basement.
But clinging halfway up one weathered waIl
by thirsty roots that suck the crumbled mortar
a seedling yew twists up towards the sky;
and launched from there, a thrush’s lone cantata
filled me once, in this hollow place, with joy.
Now, in a late bus rattling home from work,
that song sown in me glows to a blown spark.
all reduced to ash, and the ash to earth.
Here for as long as anyone remembers
empty hearth has gaped at empty hearth
and owls have wafted through the missing casements,
scouring rains have blanched the blackened hall
and rats and nettles colonized the basement.
But clinging halfway up one weathered waIl
by thirsty roots that suck the crumbled mortar
a seedling yew twists up towards the sky;
and launched from there, a thrush’s lone cantata
filled me once, in this hollow place, with joy.
Now, in a late bus rattling home from work,
that song sown in me glows to a blown spark.
Page(s) 36
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