Isabella Strachan
Byroad
A bicycle best suits this country road.
Walkers tightrope its verges warily,
Feet brushed by bellflowers or moon daisies.
Drivers hold wheels like riders with tight reins.
No bus stop flies its numbered flag.
Romans laid the earliest foundation,
But Saxons built no village here,
And Normans no monastery. It might
Have vanished under dead-nettles, except
For the wider road that bisected it,
Leading officiously towards the coast.
Its biggest upheaval was McAdam.
It missed the stagecoach, turnpike, highwayman.
Of two world wars, it witnessed nothing more
Than German prisoners felling trees.
Today, unlighted, it’s a safe crossing
For badger, deer and rabbit in the dusk.
In spring the cuckoo oboes over it.
Goldfinches clink like horseshoes struck with steel.
Grasses remain uncut, flowers unpoisoned -
Fragrant or medicinal.
Time’s car is parked along this road.
Page(s) 46
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