Pages 5d.qxp_Autumn 22/07/2021 17:01 Page 29
Transfiguration
The numbers of our days Today by car to Whitby, A69, A1, A19, A171, tripping memories of work journeys, midnight call-outs attending the dying. Countless trips, yet today strangely unfamiliar. To be alive on August 6th, 2018, my days’ numbers so blessed. The car carefully driven, for 100 miles peaks at 52.2 mpg. Not in Hiroshima 73 years ago. A day written in different numbers. Lunch stop walk at RSPB* Saltholme provides nourishment, a new cap and 26 species of birds, one helpful man 1 nuclear bomb dropped who identifies the single green sandpiper. 20,000 dead soldiers. 70,000-126,000 dead civilians. After 2.5 hours of driving, arrival, greeted by two friends. I ponder my good fortune. As the days pass many more swell the number, and not a single bird is seen. Mary Warner * Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
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