“THESE WOODLANDS ARE A CONSERVATION AREA. NO DOGS UNLESS ON LEAD. KEEP TO MARKED FOOTPATH ONLY”
SIGN ON THE SANDSTONE TRAIL, RAWHEAD, CHESHIRE

for Pete Morgan

One step beyond the stile we trespass
down a margin of the world. A bluff escarpment,
thinly wooded, edges us to sanctuary
between machine cropped fields. Unplanned things,
like thoughts, may be allowed to flourish here
within the confines of electric fences.
Here is something other than we have
in terraced yards or lawn edged gardens:
here grow the undeveloped grasses,
or gather, in the hollows, cars that sculpt
themselves to rust. All that our living
has no need for made into a reservation.
Roads thread the grey horizons.
Beyond the trees and casual walkers
a careless energy consumes the world.

Tattenhall, March 1990