Leeds Castle

We took the grass path,
Shouldered in against a hedge
Alive with buzzing;
Tentative with expectation.
Your eyes, bright even in this sun,
Turned and focussed.
You seemed to smile in meek praise
And your feet danced a skip.

The castle, around the corner
Over the parched lawn
Of history – of both yours and mine-
A signal in the dipping sun,
that the trip might end
but soon
not yet

Your car, which had spluttered here,
Basking in this heat.
The frenzied voices of an absence
Clamouring to fill the voids,
Nosing past and through the life to come...

I would not have known then
Seeing you now bend to sooth small bodies
That waking sleep has given so much.

I see now the black dress worn especially.
I wonder if those tiny eyes will realise
With surprise the depths that souls endure
When summer’s lease extends its fullness of gratitude.

We took the grassy path
Past finely clipped gardens
Alive with midge and swarmed with bees.
We dared think, for now of futures won
And I shudder to recollect
Fate’s seeming virtuous hand