Joan Waddleton
Learning about Yellowhammers
He always drew the short straw, my grandfather,
so no question as to who would meet this sickly child
who’d whooped her way alone across two hundred miles,
transfer her, wracked and wheezing to a local train,
watch our potential travelling companions roll their eyes
and sidle out before the final whistle blew.
We’re talking sixty years ago, yet even now
I smell that stained, malodorous moquette,
feel its rough texture, remember my exhaustion
fighting my revulsion, a journey out of nightmare.
Only the smell remains - a wretched entry
to my taste of paradise, my stolen rural summer.
Initiation rites of steaming poultices; doctor’s voice,
‘Who left this child to tackle such a journey?
Alone? Unsupervised? Only bed rest will serve
to mend her lungs’. Picture the attic room,
smell the unguent used to soothe my breathing,
taste the linctus clinging round my throat.
As strength seeped back, the walks could now begin.
Downland flowers, at first an embroidered haze,
came to answer to their names - knapweed, fumitory,
harebell, sweet-scented thyme.
There in time to see the March hare boxing,
welcome first swallows, see the lark ascend.
Watch the russet kestrel, wince for the fated shrew,
graduate to bird song, learn the different warblers,
identify each owl, the strange call of the nightjar.
Spot the yellowhammer, give it words to say
‘A little bit of bread and no cheese’.
‘A little bit of bread and no cheese’.
Page(s) 64
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