G) Day's Journey

Late sun on silent waters,
As the shadows spread
Across the fields
To a group of children
Playing by the brook.
Lazy grazing evening cattle
Look on in disinterest.
Clouds, like vast continents
Of perfect snow,
Floating above me.
Fallow turns to arable
And an ocean of wheat
Floats past.
Rabbits and pheasants
And a parade of poplars
Flank the melancholy miles.
Ditch and dyke and deep canal,
On a clear day...
Through sweet sorrows saline lens
A brace of Magpies mock;
"Two for joy".
And twilight echoes the ache,
The absence, the parting of the day.
Railway graffiti,
Scrawled on the side of a derelict factory workshop,
A single arrow,
Pointing back down the track;
"SKEGNESS - have a nice time."