25 APRIL 1992, Page 40

Blackthorn

On some rough by the oil refinery Where the road bisects Ellesmere Port, Through the car's nearside window my eye Was for a split second caught By blackthorn out, in patches, silver-pale - Then a road-bridge, GUINNESS — and gone.

So with thoughts dead-set on their short-term goal (The journey, foot down, get on), Delight, when it stirred, came nagged, as it were, By a kind of pulled tendon hurt; The not having bothered that much this year, The not having stayed alert.

Simon Curtis