Walking out. Belsen 1945-2015: John Payne
( for reading at the former train station at Midford)

In April 1942, Bath was bombed in the so-called Baedeker raids.
Over 400 civilians were killed, a thousand injured.
A thousand buildings were damaged beyond repair, and many people made homeless.
But life went on.

My mother walked out along blackthorn
Cowslip lanes that lead from Monkton Combe
Past Tucking Mill to here at Midford.

She said, my Mum, that it was perfect
The loveliest place on God’s whole earth
Why would you want to travel?

                                    and yet
The sad noisy world came to find her
Bombed out of her home, worrying
Over her first-born, my sister.

Someone else’s house, pregnant again
Her husband, my father, hero of
Another war, 

                           while Esther, half-
Starved is crawling towards Belsen,
The pity of it all, the pity.