Old Town Past

OLD TOWN PAST Gone: the Market where cows sheep and pigs brought telling perceptions The images, noises and smells of the farms to the town The tweeded farmers with leathery limbs and faces And gaiters of deepest sheen in a rich chestnut brown Flaxen ropes, billhooks, pitchforks enough for a peasants' uprising Spread along the High street and over the Corn Exchange square While Newport Street furnished inns for all thirsts' reviving And above all, the clock tower made skyline iconic and fair Then was school run not protected, chauffeured, in cars But raced, skipped or dawdled through field, street, market, rail station Our little world teamed with action, unscreened - no bars Of health and safety; adventure without filtration In that world we seemed in different incarnation Can we thus discern immortality's intimation