Natasha – Alan Wells

The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition
1996 Crabbe Memorial Competition – Third Prize
Adjudicators: Susan Wicks and William Scammell

Beyond day-centre walls
entered into a different world
bounded by fenced fields’ paddocks
you sit well up there

trees look up to you wave
marvel at your mobility
you are nobility for an hour
you sit well up there

today you lead the parade
pages fawn at your feet
you could have been born to it
you sit well up there

word for word you repeat after me
‘the sun is hot the corn almost ripe’
conversation is not your strong point
you sit well up there

heels in rubber boots urge forward
dust spurts from your horse’s hooves
your brain stem has some connections
you sit well up there

asked to raise your right hand
as if in salute slowly you lift both
but this is no surrender
you sit well up there.

Copyright © Alan Wells 1996