The day started well enough
We’d gone for a walk
Down to the old weir
You must remember the place
I took you there last year
It wasn’t hard to find the track
Lying just below the ridge
The old gate hanging half off
The broken hinges gone
Replaced by twists of wire
I was surprised by that
Since it was only a year
Everything changes all the time
Though we tend not to notice
The shifts are always subtle
The day started well enough
We’d gone for a walk
Down to the old weir
Do you remember the place
I think we went there one time
The track was tangled and overgrown
Still, we knew where we were going
The day was bright and boisterous
Birds cackling in the scruffy trees
A mild wind keeping the heat at bay
I remembered it being easier
But memories are unreliable
Constantly shifting and morphing
Sometimes they’re just inventions
Stuff we imagine to fill in the gaps
The day started well enough
We’d gone for a walk
Down to the old weir
You wouldn’t remember the place
I don’t think we ever went there together
The track was fitful and vague
Hardly more than an impression
The gate I’d taken for a landmark
Had disappeared, not even a post
Only shrubs scattered without pattern
I thought there should have been more
Perhaps they were just wishful notions
Reminders of other times, other places
Intrusions from the endless past
Constantly confusing our present days
The day started well enough
We’d gone for a walk
Down to the old weir
Where we spent the time
Casting stones on water
Ruari Jack Hughes
10 September 2012