Snowfall Ramble

(Shropshire hills, 14/1/15)

Melting in the valley down below
but the higher up the hill we go
boots squeaking through the soft, light snow;
white highlights traced on skeletal twigs,
still, grey and heavy sky
mewing buzzard cry
brief light rain,
ambling through a gorse patch
topped and capped with snowball clumps,
then through a dripping copse,
and out on to the slope again;
white-coated hills around, surround
and brown-grey swathes
of dormant trees, dark, stark.

Pause to check which track –
or shall we just retrace our steps,
go the same route back?
second-hand tablet seems to say
that north is over there, that way
(that just can’t be, we’ve ambled south,
right down the map from up the north);
(forgot: rotate it this way, that,
and ’tother, so you’ll get
the compass properly set)
– that’s better, now it’s plain            
south is there and north is where
we’ve come from,
so take that path to meet the lane …
and here it is –
but where’s my glove gone?
track back to where we’ve been,
when did we stop,
last squinting at the screen?    
don’t try to scour too much ground
don’t go too far, or be too long –
– found!

… fresh, open space, a bracing calm
refreshing roam, a cooling balm.