Thursday 19 September 2013

Bygone

Never thought I’d
see a Spitfire

a Reg Mitchell original

in the skies over
Brighouse

far from the coast
and from the hidey
hole of government

even further from its
heyday

its dogfights

or

its dragonfights

as always seemed
to me more fitting
for its name

but there one is

repaired
renewed and
fairly resurrected

performing a solitary
pantomime
an
airborne operetta
of valour

its engine
singing the praises
of the few

whilst the many
crowd along this
road and the uppermost
length of this field

cameras and binoculars
and mobile phones in
hand

half an eye on the
gathering tangle of
traffic behind
them

none of them wanting
to miss it
but equally
not wanting to
be stuck here
being bygone
for too long after
it leaves

but I
being bygone on
foot
skip and dodge
and duck and weave
my way through
all of that

keeping both eyes
on the Spitfire

the Reg Mitchell
original

as it makes its
final pass
and sweeps clear
away into the
east

shrinking down by degrees into 
various scale model
sizes – and at
last into a

dot

on the vast
radar screen of the
sky – which is no longer
over Brighouse

and as I walk
I think that
I don’t think I’ll

ever see a Spitfire make

that trip again.  

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