A Rave in North Norfolk

After the rave, the steamed-up Peugeots

that nightlong blunted the field’s edge

slunk off one by one like a flagging protest

leaving a stillness of litter-strewn hedges

the waterfowl dared enter back into.

On the lawn, tall shadows saw stickered decks

into retracted back seats, whilst the few

who remained in the lamp-lit mill slept,

 

not noticing how, like kicked-up sediment

settling, the displaced calm restored

itself around them, or how, beyond the lane

the shallow-pooled stretches sharpened,

like the coloured smudge of ballast and gorse

beside a decelerating train.

© Tim Cockburn 2006