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Angela Topping

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Prospect from a Bay

(Halton View, Widnes)

I've stood in that bay window in my parents' room
countless times: soft-soaping whining toddlers
radaring for returning mums and dads -
my brothers and sister chasing time -
or scanning for careless boyfriends
until dad's clock whispered unwelcome truths.
Many's the time I've swung my legs
from the blanket box-seat, humouring him
as, ill in bed, he sipped the tea I'd brought.

You could see the field across the road,
the factory where even dad was overshadowed
by powerhouse engines. Sunsets bloodied the sky
over my Bongs territory, its secret paths
patiently mapped, its counties and geography
named by adventurer me: The Chalk Downs,
The Plateau, Rainbow River - dyed by chemicals.
The chemics' industry stained our family's lives,
blistered our paintwork, hastened deaths.

Others look through that window now,
viewing sunsets and the long dry road.
The Bongs is just wasteground.

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