ARRIVAL OF CONCRETE
ARRIVAL OF CONCRETE
The old woman pottered
in a coal-dark house
with an inscrutable history
from before our time;
she'd shout at kids
who messed in the meadow.
Buttercups and poppies
scattered colour
across that wild expanse
where dock leaves
apparently cured nettle stings
and the travellers said
the field contained
cures for most ailments.
Trespassing, we played games
in the cornfield opposite
all mad with summer
but in time, the woman died
and her crumbling house
became a car park
while in the cornfield
five hundred new houses.
The Fig Tree 9. June 2025, Editor Tim Fellows
Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
Sat 12th Jul 2025 20:14
Thanks, John.
The fragility and beauty of the poppy (such as those I see in the middle of the busy roadside reservation) is such a contrast to the unforgiving ugliness of the world of concrete.
A beauty so easy to destroy, and so difficult to replace.💐