Navigators
The people who catch the ear are
walking, in the white space of her journal, orbiting
margins
from Cockermouth, Coniston, Keswick, Manchester
they trudge the line of the road
some with an ass, others alone. Followed
in time, by
Lang, Shaw, Massey, Hyne, Barn, Huddleston, Donelly, Barums, Davies, Robert, Roberts,
Watt, Watkins, King, McNeal and Brown
no trace found
of the workers' camp:
the quarry cascades on a car park,
its water kettled by wires
the people of the common: charcoal burners,
manager, blacksmith, clerk, miner, miner, labourer, miner, miner, storekeeper, hut keeper, labourer, blacksmith, labourer, labourer, labourer, engine fitter
silent after dynamite, erased
by trees that people the common
their Rock of Names
written deep in the vein,
growling with water
lured by gravity
through the submerged aqueduct
under our feet
Jessica Sneddon is a poet and recent Masters graduate who is fortunate enough to call Cumbria home. Her work has appeared in Tears in the Fence, Magma, Stand, and Ink, Sweat and Tears.