IN TRUST

Once upon a time,

butterflies flicked along woodland rides,

willow warblers sang,

children climbed trees, played hid-and-seek,

discovering worlds in undergrowth

where pebbles whisper bright secrets.

There were villages, shops,

Pubs on summer evenings,

Canal-side strolls,

Sheep flecked on hillsides, cattle drowsing in fields,

Livelihoods stared back

From hawthorn hedges we assumed as birthright

Once upon a time.

Once upon a time,

Tall stones stood guard

Where dreamers are rewarded with sleep

Beneath a counterpane of blue mist

Rolling in from Wales to the Cloud.

Across the throat of Dee

Slipped the buzzard’s cry, a trembling of curlews.

Wind stinging your face,

The county sweeping down from hazes of sedge

And winter leaflessness,

You gloried in a drift of wood smoke,

Hollow croak of a pheasant

And freedom to walk where you pleased

Once upon a time.

Once upon a time,

Pools quivered like skin poised

For the faintest brush of fingers,

Tensing in a bliss of spring sunlight:

Frogspawn and brown water,

Cold tea spilt amongst birch roots where earth

Stirred again to wakefulness.

Stubbled hillsides of old bracken

Came tumbling down to dry stone walls,

Paddocks of thin grass

Searching for their memories. They nudges

The sinewed arms of farmers

Wandering in to breakfast after milking

Once upon a time.

Now may our children keep on climbing trees,

Their daughters watch mornings shiver into daylight

And heed the buzzard’s call.

May our children’s sons find frogspawn,

Songbirds, bees, and feel

Their rich connection with the earth.

Let us make sure this will not seem a fairy tale

Once upon a time.

Harry Owen