Down

What the lane was made of
bits of brick slant and broken
stones from the moor
stones from the town
gravel and mud and so many
vintages of asphalt
broken all broken now
the layers revealed
in deep crevasses
all the way down
to the wet silt at the bottom
jagged edges beside the verge
you can barely shuffle along
lumps and clods of millstone grit
all thrown out of the spaces
they were placed there to fill
holes and gaps cracks and rifts
all washed out like fillings
from teeth all gone down
down and on down
scattered wildly
spewing from the ends of lanes
tidemarks of gravel and mud
on the corners where the brown water
turned down towards the flood plain
down towards the level
down