the downside

View from Dunstable Downs September 2015

Looking beyond the vista,

what lies in ambush

for these harvested fields,

this patchwork of history ?

Who's children will gaze

in gratitude at pastoral greenery,

this flagship of peace ?

Or who will grimace

at a prospect of factory-farmed rooftops,

through the mist of exhaust fumes -

shading their eyes

from solar-panel shinery

and the scything of wind farms

slicing the air like other butchers?

When the myth of 'affordable' homes

lies beneath this same soil,

unicorns in graves

the gardens of the affluent,

who will 'admire' this view.

We, as giants, see
the green and pleasant history,
and fear the unfulfilling
spread of brickery.