Cheddar Gorge in the Rain

Cheddar Gorge in the Rain

Cheddar Gorge in the rain

I wish I could remember my name

Or write a song like the Rock of Ages

That goes on for pages and pages

But that twisting turning path

That snakes upward through stone shafts

Just about can cradle my shame

Memory just about vanishes within

The rock veins

And stopping at a pub in Priddy

I read an article on Mendip Fracking

How all the communities opposed

And no permission given

But the company waits in intermission

So sadly sat the man at the bar

So badly the bar maid polished the brass

And pressing like coals the anthracite mind

Burns up the chimney black with sulphurous soot

A picture of Queen Victoria greets you

As you enter and to the bar look

So heavy fell the rain

So hard in the yard

Where crows caw in vain

And on the earth sodden field ruddy brown with clay

Gushing rivulets down roadside gullies as the snow melts away

Gales blow and holler

On the Mendip hills so hollow

Fallow fields of rain

The bleat of sheep in others

And brown goats on the torn up, moss rotten slopes

Near Blackdown, Velvet Bottom

The flashing Landrover of the Cheddar Gorge Company

With the sour faced man who glowers at you

And says to car drivers this road is closed

But nobody heeds him

A thankless task

I sat in a fish and chip shop out of the rain’s blasts

That abated half an hour

Though the lull did not last

And it was takeaways only

But she was persuaded

The look of pity in her eye of a wet sodden man

At her door

Then two ladies, one older than the other

A mother or aunt

Came and followed suit – pleading to eat in

While the rains pursued

And the elder woman talking of whether

She’ll be remembered when she’s dead

They had to walk back to Draycott Park

Because their car had given up the Ghost