Reading Lupercal in Geoffrey Manton by Colin Bancroft

This book has been here longer than my life,

Dust covered; unread in a generation.

The last date stamped 1982.

Braemar freezes.

In San Carlos British soldiers land,

Mary Rose is lifted from her grave.

Thirty years unthumbed.

The pike floats on the water’s surface,

Its great teeth gone.

Footpaths are weeded over.

Algae scums the cover,

Anglers avoid the pools.

Words mould the autumnal leaves.

Lead veins the paper’s skeleton,

The musty smell of biology