Twisted limbs reaching through wrecked windows of abandoned mill
Hive of industry for the men living on the hill
Walking beneath the aquaduct, can hear children singing
Fishing and larking, the church bell ringing
Sun fractures time and memory, sky divorced from disused canal
Sound above more wood pigeon than owl
The green man’s face guarding the fence
Through fields, passing cows who show mild indifference
Searching for the heron tree through a country gate
On higher ground, lower paths and train tracks arriving too late
A building site would deny nature’s simplicity, shame that’s its fate
©John de Gruyther 2014
Photograph by Heather de Gruyther
The World Outside the Window 