Remembrance

remembrance

only that summer
the fens dried and baked
and the combine harvesters
in a dispassion of dust and wheat-husks
sliced through a thin exultation
of stubborn larksong
to stubble stiff as bamboo
and harsh
enough to etch it's trace
on naked calves.

only that summer
after breakfast
straw-bales glossy as egg-yolk
littered our field of vision
like the stark prospect
of an overloaded kit-bag
and only us two there
to haul them in.

only that summer
we were bound as tightly
as straw in baler-twine
and as we worked
caught the drifting foot-fall
of soldiers on the thin breeze
and marshalled our own troops
into regiments of sixteen
stacked to attention
across a scorched parade-ground
awaiting orders.

only that summer
we shared a handkerchief
as the blood sang in our ears
glancing down-field to the road
at the broken ranks
loping like sick antelope
and one bulky figure
spent on the verge
doubled up as the sergeant drilled a boot
into his spine with a cracked shriek
and wheat-shales grazed our salted brows
as he followed with his rifle-butt
then like a battle-wound
a boy's sob entered
and doused the heat
with its long slow echo.

only this summer
we stopped to share a balers' lunch:
fat sweaty cheese
stacked with bleached slabs
of yesterday's loaf
its crusts tupperware-baked
and the yellow stain of piccalilli
bleeding into the space between.

only this summer
a flasky cup of sour coffee
gurgled up with a distant volley
of shouts and blows
while the sun bent its rays over our stacks
and dissolved into the stubble
with the dregs
but as we walked home
chickory clung to my sinuses
like the smoky breath
of a restive barrack-room
after lights-out.