Signals in Unison

In the distance long- necked geese

call  inside their group, gathering

the scents of home, answering

harmoniously. Do we stay or do we go,

they seem to say, joined in webbed unison.

A woman I knew called frequently,

Inside the penned page of war-torn space,

after her new love, in khaki, moved off

to another town, under instruction

in order to develop body and mind,

and on-going army strategies.

Back in 1940 their rural romance stilled

Briefly pitted up against a silent universe

of unseen, oncoming challenge for the tall soldier,

contrasting with another lover of words  at home.

They would meet at a gate

where lullabies and songs transferred  emotionally

in unrivalled echo  over richly green

and silent pastoral embraces.

Touched by mooing cows and tillers of the soil,

accepting of the land anchored firmly

until knitted forever together

through ‘life and death ‘til we part’,

written on the page decades on.