From the Great Western

These small West Country towns where year by year

Newly elected mayors oppose reforms

Their last year’s Worships promised—down the roads

Large detached houses, Croydons of the West,

Blister in summer heat; striped awnings hang

Over front doors, and those geraniums,

Retired tradesmen love to cultivate,

Blaze in the gravel. From more furtive streets

Unmarried mothers leave for London. Girls

Who had such promise suddenly lose their looks.

Small businesses go bankrupt. Corners once

Familiar for a shuttered toll gate house

Are smoothed away to make amenities.

The copper beech, the bunchy sycamore

And churchyard limes are felled. Among their stumps

The almond tree shall flourish. Corn Exchange—

On with the Poultry Show! and Cemet’ry,

With your twin chapels, safely gather in

Church and dissent from small West Country towns

Where year by year,

Newly elected Mayors oppose reforms.