Looking in the wrong places

While we were turning over rocks
by Boundary Brook she interrupted
the search suggesting things could be lost

everywhere and even if we found it
here so much would still be lost,
misfiled under toadstools instead of stones;

she pointed out the round culture
of balls could be obscure to the upright
and inclined to fall, to the wrongly imprinted:

the child who opened his eyes on a scree
slope, saw an eagle and spent
his short life not flying.


George Roberts
18/12/2002