HIGH WIRE ACTS... (My new poem about Berkswell, Warwickshire...)

 High Wire Acts…

Passing Berkswell church and through a dense copse, then across a raised walkway 

And an exposed harvested field, the public footpath became dusty, like a Western trail

Out of ‘cowboy’ films I had watched religiously as a young lad.

The stifling sun beat down but a stiff breeze fanned the heat away,

Yet there was a dearth of wildlife about, with grasses yellow and pale,

Whilst any remaining plants leaned, their impressions dry and sad…

Passing by the remaining woodland, the HS2 plague became visible.

Concrete, scarred land, idle diggers and mounds of sand in Sunday silence

 Lay. But the erected lines of wire fencing surrounding the ever encroaching 

Construction works, for damselflies had become strangely viable

Landing strips, like thin runways for tiny biplanes, in essence.

And they clung on, warming, their gossamer wings in the August sunlight glinting…  

Pete Ray

18th August 2025…    

 

 

The countryside around Berkswell had been decimated for the onset of HS2 but although wildlife was scarce, damselflies constantly landed upon thin wires which made up boundary fences and they performed their hire wire acts for my camera…

Beautiful…