Rosalie Challis

I am another of the editors of  “The Listening Walk”, an anthology of the work of 40 poets, which was published late April 2013. A few weeks later, I was delighted when the poem below appeared in “Domestic Cherry”, Swindon’s annual poetry magazine.

Hebe

They wrapped you in your old grey rug
to take you from this house.

Now you have come back to us
your fur soft as ash.

You will join your calm shadow
beside the bench on our lawn

and in the fig-tree’s deep shade
where you lay at summer’s height.

We will glimpse your head, its fine
curve the shape of a human hand,

let the garden remind us of the bond
which binds man and dog,

as we move from morning sun
to the peace of dust to dust.

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