Lakshmi Poem by Michael Maxwell Steer

This is how I want to remember you:
running close to new-turned soil
in the high field, a silhouette
against the early morning light,
your vapour trail lingering
momentarily above the frosty earth,

your whole existence focused in that nose
attached by invisible
elastic to a scent, wrenching you
this way and that across the field
pursuing an ever elusive prey.


Or again, in early summer corn
when all I see is a torpedo's bow-wave
rippling thru the underworld
until, suddenly heraldic,
you break the surface to see my whereabouts;

faithful servant ever studying
to anticipate my wishes.
This is how I want to recall you -
bursting with exhaustion and delight,
not as you will be in 10 years' time,
apologetic at your ebbing life-force.


Swallowcliffe 3/10/98 & Chicksgrove 7/7/99