RELIEF ROAD THROUGH SHAMBLER’S COPSE

Posted by Admin on 15 April 2008, 12:00 am

The logs, a wayside pile, lie stripped,
bereft of foliage and twigs –
await the shuttled haulage truck –
and, crudely cleared, the land
displays its bristled face.
We’ll not deny the urgent need
to redirect the juggernauts
that thunder from the quay;
but we, who, sixty years ago,
collected hazel nuts, climbed trees,
denuded nests, or bunches tied
of primroses or bluebells – there,
where adders sometimes slithered past,
in sylvan hideaways would find
the shade-preferring violets –
must feel regret to see the copse
that comforted the sight with all
its changing hues now disappear,
to be replaced, no doubt, with what
a road inevitably brings
to mar the view.
The march of progress thus we see,
and sigh for yesteryear’s stability.