Leaving Beechwood

They left me standing
With the wind whipping the fields
Amd tyres crunching on gravel
Left in those long, yellow corridors
Where metal clashed on metal
Voices echoed distantly
In the herb-scented woods
Children fought and played
Amongst twisted boughs
And sudden bright, feather-soft clearings
Where the sun slanted down
And made the grass shine

Once we escaped
Past a burnt-out hulk of a car
Rusting into the soil like blood
But we were not ready for the world
Traffic screamed too loudly
Roads wound into the distance and faded
Like the future
So we returned
To warm friendly nights
Where curtains jigged in light summer breezes
And dreams were gentle and pure
And the next day was just like the last

We cried at the end
As the last hymn faded
And died amongst the lions in the rafters
Its glowing red brick hid behind the cedar trees
In fields still whipped by the wind
And became the past.