DINGLE BANK

Past the Autumn river’s wallow
See the steaming horse’s flank
Stamps and snorts amidst the bellow
Of the Stage at Dingle Bank.

Yon, the farm boy, eager, callow
makes his way through country dank.
Across the fields forlorn and fallow
To waiting warmth at Dingle bank.

By the frosty fields the willow
In icy river water, bending lank;
And a young girl, head on pillow
Dreams of a love at Dingle Bank.

Two old men pass in brief ‘hello’
They have met and sat and drank
Where one can be a right good fellow
Supping ale at Dingle Bank.

Where the flickering wick in tallow
makes moving shadows gross and lank
From drinkers’ faces, lined and sallow
Against the walls at Dingle Bank.

Now wild flowers deep in shallow
Dips by the stream in serried rank,
Soft Spring sun begins to mellow
The Winter chills at Dingle Bank.

And the summer zephyrs near
Foretelling of the early swallow
Spies the welcome rooftops there
of Dingle Bank in Sleepy Hollow.

One by one past ghosts are freed,
The rooms are quiet and still and blank
As the departing sounds recede
And life goes on at Dingle Bank.

March 1994