Tracing the tracks of our

childhoods along paths

muddy after rain. The woods

where we played now

a ‘nature reserve’, with

a ‘wildlife pond’. The way back?

 

We haven’t been here for decades.

Follow our familiar brook

to the river, upstream

of the sewage works,

disturb a heron and a coot.

Another label: Elmbridge Meadows.

 

Seems wilder than we remember.

Burdock, comfrey, hornbeam,

white willow. Behind a seat

in a clearing someone lives in a tent.

November sun. Newcomer parakeets

rent the air, plumage glowing.