Reel Journeys

‘Born for a Purpose’, Muriel Braddick,
Exeter Tapes for the Handicapped Association 1976

Few weekend miles I pedal bike
through juggernauts, a colporteur,
of imaginations, peddler,
to change her library books, as scout
to scour travel shelves for tomes,
to take round globe poor-sight shut-in.

I, from saddle, expedition
lead, survey routes, change climate, clime,
prepare her passage, appoint path,
sail wave, hack jungle track, tent desert
waste, ice, cliff edge, white water
raft from terraced house wheelchair pitch.

Flesh-jabbed Atlantic hail I push,
recalling warmth of lie-in peers,
ill-dressed for Lenten abrupt squall,
deposit last mind thralling tale,
rebuked I had not opus wrapped;
that strains my humour, wracks the mind,
my vest and pants feel wetter still.

In Easter days, in Devon lanes
where bank primrose glitter every bend
I pick a hundred butter gems,
deliver them in tissue wrap.
Recording reel-to-reel her call,
to open windows, handicapped;
excursion transfers, wheels, books, tapes,
clocked airmiles, trips without a tip.

Published by Academy of the Heart and Mind, 30th May 2020

https://academyoftheheartandmind.wordpress.com/2020/05/30/poems-by-stephen-kingsnorth-7/