Will we ride
High on the hog again?
Will we ride
In sun, and wind, and rain?
Will days come
When we forget the pain?
Will we ride
To Canada by train?
Those old friends,
Lost in twenty twenty,
Never hugged,
Spaces now seem empty.
See those bulbs,
Beneath the acer tree,
Sprouting now,
That we will never see.
Dunnock chicks
All fluff upon the lawn,
Scrabble for
A place amongst new born,
This new year
Hard not to be care worn,
Up the plot
Tis time to plant new corn.
We must ride
High on the hog again
Though we cried
In wind and sun and rain
Come let’s ride
We’ll gallop through the pain
We shall ride
High on the hog again.

Harry Rogers in The Red Bedroom, 1st January 2021.