PICKING UP SPEED


cruising through Hemel Hempstead

Stevenson's foot swollen, will have to cut
off his boot. Sledges heavier than usual.

wondering whether Christianity
has a future and what you had for dinner.

Bent forward against the first wind, ice
in our beards and a hundred miles left.

Did you find the road I mentioned?

We look at the sky with renewed understanding
since Johnson's talk a fortnight behind us.

Twenty-five minutes late past the brown horses,
the car breakers, the Ovaltine factory