Harle syke
Briercliffe
Reedley
Burnley Wood
Duke Bar
Stoneyholme
Thursby
‘Top o' th' Town’
Stoops
Habergham
Gannow
West End
Towneley
Pendle
Briercliffe
Pikehill
Worsthorne
Brunshaw
New Church
Barley
Fulledge
Forrest of Bowland

A Winter Scene

Curling stones, cancellations and commuters writ large in Robin's winter wonderland

Robin Petty
December 15, 2024

The white drama of winter – 

an actor in a woollen suit

taps the barometer glass,

sighs in a stage whisper

and buttons up his coat.

It is the wind that is perhaps the worst.

The way it pulls rain down villainous passages,

lifting any manner of things in its way.

Ice can be equally cruel,

when not skating, curling stones

or fixing a mojito.

Look! how it whitens the beard of the Arctic explorer

in my father’s National Geographic.

See how it can close the line this side of Halifax,

turn the 13:40 into the 15:10,

sending commuters scurrying into the arms

of a bespectacled clerk,

hard-pressed to find any sort of connection.

Yet, winter will,

in time,

leave the stage and shuffle off into the wings,

put its silvery costume back in the dressing-up box

and lie down to sleep in the wardrobe,

curled-up tight in guest linen

Image - Tracy Wilson