New Year Blessing - Our Town by Michele Ross

The Garden Wall of The Bridgnorth Club

 A market town spilling down sandstone cliffs to the river

The steam train whistle echoes

The soft hiss of my steam machine glowing in the dark

And lights strung up the bypass

The echo of the last steam train whistle

As the dunnocks huddle in hedges

And lights strung up the bypass

Moving slow and old as sand

The dunnocks huddle cold in hedges

My dry mouth is seeking water

Moving slow and old as sand

How pleasant to have slept and not to have to stir just yet

My dry mouth parched as sand, despite

the soft hiss of the steam machine

To have slept well and not to stir

The market town spilling like water down to sand - how pleasant.