Time And Again / Passages Sheila Robertson

(reflections in an old orchard near Normandy’s Beaches)

Gray light swings astride shattered hulks of jagged cement as dawn extinguishes night’s crystalline stars

Fog and memory sift in and out of crumbling artillery emplacements leftovers from some madman’s discarded war socketed above empty beaches

Death bunkers along sea cliffs caressing battle’s rusting instruments Garish graffiti mocks pillboxes in Lies confronted by Truths

Battles fought in the names of gods where ambition moulders beneath wayside crosses hung with tortured Christs witnesses to buried details

History like a palimpsest scraped and written over forgotten and repeated emerges in Light

To gather with Hope in sunny orchards where the tang of fermenting apples scents the warming air

Spring ruptures from bud-promise to blossom clouds infused with bee hum

Summer’s time flashes past Its flight sketched in gold-leafed sun in dazzling sea in fiery acts of Living

Fall releases leaves foreshadows regret We should have worked harder We should have paid attention We should have offered more

Golden light no longer sparkles It wavers weakly falters like drones drunk on spoiling apples

Until winter masses with certainty Cold Piercing Sharp Bees’ tattered wings skeletal leaves and life’s stings litter the darkening way