Eternity

After exams – serious drinking – then an unserious job.
Nostalgia forever remembers the summer as a farmhand
the unweighted freedom of thrusting youth
and harvest time.
Making hay
while the sun shone.
Shaved golden meadows
sun scented grass
barley water.

When the trailer is full
a bumping ride to the barn.
Pickup, load and stack. Pickup, unload and stack
hard and simple  – no ambiguity or complexity.
A bale teeters at the top of the pile
the farmer, quick for a big man, pushes it back.
It wouldn’t have done any harm – a glancing blow.
Funny you should say that he says.

Many years before he had been a teacher
cars yet to be two a garage.
Five shared transport to school
they shared petrol and colleagues foibles.
One morning on a quiet street – a lowercase t intersection
one car turning right, the other left
the school car had roadway permission.

A second look … hesitation… almost a third
convey falsehood – mistaken courtesy
both move at the same time.
A collision – brief and very minor.
Five workmates laugh
a good story for the staffroom
the other driver is slow to emerge
“shock probably.”
Seconds elapse.
Unconscious….surely not ? Cardiac arrest! Quickly now.

The door is opened and something fell.
Unknowing becomes knowing
becomes disbelief
none of them has seen a dead person before.
A small blow
exactly the right energy – precisely the wrong place.