I did not belong

 

The landscape of my childhood anaesthetized my soul

I had no vested interest in it for it was ugly and raw

An industrial scene the place of my exile was utterly foul

a sea of chimney stacks in grey fields of gloomy chaos

 

A simple glance was sufficient to avert my gaze elsewhere

and cast my mind back to memories refined in pastures green

I had been taken by parental force here to be nurtured

a loathing invaded my juvenile being to a bitter resentment

 

I had been taken from a place of leafy lanes

where a copse and occasional dell did rest

Uprooted and removed to a satanic dark grimy hollow

I was an alien out of my depth and cut adrift

 

Inconsolable I sought no comfort only degrees of tolerance

I adjusted to these hostile dark surroundings

Here was the antithesis of warmth and beauty

where a brutal life had replaced a furrowed field

 

To endure was the only means of survival

I fixed my dreams and longings on a future garland

I told myself this was only temporary, an abberation

The sun still shone where the harvest reigned

and this I longed for once more