31. From Whence She Came

From Whence She Came

To look back, behind the curtain

Before your heart beat a certain

Proof of 'when' you are,

Is the former marrow memories of

The forebears.

To feel the soft stab truth

In generational proof

Of 'who' you really are

Issues forth lush visitations

Of mind attic.

I dream of, and know my forebears

And find them within the borders

Of the places where they lived.

The Fowlers and the Wraggs

Ghosting memories flag

In seeing what was home.

Today, Spring Cottage, Winson

Where my father's heart beat crimson

Courting village scene with my mother.

I could almost hear my

grandfather's clock still

Ticking there.

(Dad, the swifts nest still in roof tiles.

At gardens end the spring still greets the Coln,

Runs its sedentary dappled path

Of ache swallow dipping lushness,

As of yesteryear).

And on, to Lower Slaughter

A  house that held three daughters

Ronald Fowler ensnared there.

He chose gentle Florence

Over bolder, older Ada.

The same clock chimed years

Near that stream.

(And Ada, Flo!  Children still dip toes

And paddle in the water, merriment of laughing

Faces as ducks sentinel like stalkers

And the mill wheel turns 

At Slaughter, as it ever did).

And home still knows my bones when shown

Knows where home has been, though unknown

Years past before me here.

In my marrow, soul seeding DNA

I was there.

Today's image is of Spring Cottage, Winson, painted by AWM (Wes Martin) for his Daily Painting project. Spring Cottage is in the heart of the Cotswolds and the village remains unspoilt.