Look! A huddle of colours,
Sad brown and cream mixed with chalky red
Slam-door carriages
Rusting on the rails beside us,
As we streaked past Crewe
Clickety click, clickety clack, to the far North;
Preston, Kendal, Carlisle, Lockerbie & Glasgow
Little rows of Tudor houses,
Proudly show mock black wooden beams
Sleepers lifted from the sidings,
To keep the past in mind?
There, grand old arches, a viaduct
Holding up a footpath on a now abandoned line
A dozen black & white jigsaw cows,
Sitting, standing, puzzle in the sun
Waiting in the corner of the meadow
Beside the lazy dark and still canal
The hayfields, dressed up, light brown stubble,
Beside the high hedge bank
Bunches of trees shaking autumn branches,
Nestling leaves of every shade
Bright shining tops, slim fronds,
Flowers, orange, purple heather, bronze,
Below, hedges clinging, nearly bare branches
A little green, gold, red & sad brown left
Hanging with cousins or quietly strewn
On the edge of the lime green meadow
Grey and white sheep,
Some shaggy cream, some bumblebee stripes
Black and white heads nodding,
Basking on the steep rutted hillside
We speed by.
Cool shadows of the late day sun
Creep over them.
© Christopher
.