Michael Hastings
On The Ridgeway
Up on unanimous shoulders,
Raw roar of wind rollers.
Fell, scarp, and tumbleweed,
Thumb’s nail of Thames Valley.
By motorcycle, riding
Jockey, on tractor weals
To where, atop, bryony binds
The exaggerate mile.
Clouds above the Ridgeway,
Too at hand to believe.
Trees of apple promise
And cold nips of knife ice.
Sounds, and the ear hums with
Winged totter of birds’ eyes.
Almost Spring but for rain,
And kneading green cow-buds.
Chalk in the soil like hip-
Bones, and wet months for wheat.
I could be nowhere else,
But here — dwarfed in landscape.
The handlebarred machine cools
Soft scimitars of heat.
My ride up threw no shadow;
I ride down — the shadow is me.
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