A-Roaming We Will Go

Roaming. Verb.

Moving about aimlessly or unsystematically, especially over a wide area. To move about, or travel, often without a clear idea of what you are going to do. To tramp. To ramble, range, rove, and wander.

A-roaming. This is how Ellen and I pass the weekends. We ramble to the blackberry bushes beyond Drayton and the pool. We drift along the road to Dodds Hill, laughing at signposts. We tramp to the elm field, dodging the raindrops. Our rambles take us to the old beeches, the hollow oak and the burial mound on Barrow Hill. We rove along elven paths, star-paths, heart-paths and singing paths. Our footsteps traverse the edges of fields, through clouds of cow parsley and past the flock of Jacob’s sheep, the scummy pond and the millstream. We tread this landscape, clad in pumps, clogs, sandals, boots and sometimes nothing but our cracked, bare soles.

We roam through storms, hail and summer light, shadows and moonbeams. Through mud, nettles and brambles. Past the church, the braying donkey and the house of many windows. Past the boyfriend’s house, (mine or hers?) the rose-covered cottage and the empty house with the falling roof. We roam to escape our families, the rules of the week, we roam to escape our own selves. Ours is a climbing-over, a running and a leaping; our steps are endless.

Now we roam these places in our dreams, our feet tramping the sheets and covers, what was once familiar only stardust now. 

Bronwen Griffiths