Halfway Back

Summary

i.

The day's a beauty, sun on the minted

morning, fresh hint of air from the west.

The climb up Steeple track past the ox-eye

daisies, the piebald pony, the stone lintel

of the tumbled shack takes nothing from you,

nor the sheep path that veers left over rough

ground to the lip, the brow, then the crown

of the hill. Now's the time to sit and draw

in the valley's veined cupola, the next

county's border a raised vernacular

after all those flat vowels.You'd been advised

to cross an unmarked field and cut the walk

a whole arduous mile; razor wire folds

loosely around bog grass and a haze lifts

from the soft ground. But how to do this –

slip past the waymark when you see the farmer

on the road and no convergent distance?

Now you are the girl who folds into a note

and posts herself sky-wards like a white bird.

You keep right and pass a farm where dogs

are set to guard at intervals in separate yards.

Allow now a long down hill, a rough jog

slowing as the road rises to the crossroads,

and although south rolls to a village

you follow the map and set course north

for the plantation. It's midday,water's

low, your pack an extra kilo and lunch

must wait untilyou've placed a wall

between yourself and the curious cattle.

The walls are man-height, and you so small,

until the gate, tightly wrought barbed wire

and sheet iron layers over a nettled ditch.

She's back, the girl who can ride on air

and it's a snitch getting over this.

A cascade of tussocks on a sixty-degree

slope andyou've made it to the creek

where you unlace your boots and sink

your feet into the cool singing waters,

eat at last on the heat of the bank.

Lie down with the land now;you're halfway back.

ii.

We could say that you never left, we could say

so much was lost – what was still to be

achieved, won, admired, loved; we could

imagine you halfway between here and there,

about to set off but, having forgotten something

essential, about to turn back. We could say

you are just out of ear shot, beyond calling

but not quite.