The Legacy of Old Tom

It's official name
was Hathersedge number five,
but when they pulled his body
from the rich dark, loam
on a wet October morning,
watched by crows and the tufts
of last year’s barley
missed at the side of the field,
they called it Tom’s field.

He played here as a child,
fished in the brook
and caught grasshoppers
in the meadow of the field edge..
As a young man
he layered the hedges;
cut down the old willow
with the tractor-tyre swing
when a February storm
took off its crown.

When he inherited the farm
he left it fallow for a year
and refused to sell it
even at twice the value.
When he got married
they pitched the marquee
at the edge of the brook
and planted new willow trees.

The nursing home was stale
and grey as the old clay pipes
he used to dig up in the field.
he died looking to the skies
holding a photograph
of his mother
in Hathersedge number five.

Watercolour and ink
3 1/2 x 2 1/2
$25