AWOKEN FROM SLUMBER

Where Sunlight defused by the leaf canopy
Dappled the ground
Gladys rested, quietly
Beneath an English sky
Peacefully sleeping
In a quiet place
But for the church bells echo
In the steeples shadow
A place that was familiar
That had become so to her
It was familiar through all the seasons
She shared an intimacy with the daffodils
That danced in the spring
She was well acquainted with the summer air
Heady and fragranced
She knew the place beneath the carpet
Of golden autumn leaves
And the linen white shroud of winter
Amidst family and friends
Completely at peace
Undisturbed she lay
Unconcerned with affairs of the day
Unmoved by events
Untroubled by stress or strain
Untouched by evil
Unworried by the world
Uninvolved in life
Under the good earth she lay
At peace since her passing
Until she was wrenched away
Awoken from her slumber
Taken from an English churchyard
Her resting place desecrated
By despicable savagery
By the compassionate?
Those with social conscience
Who claim the moral high ground
For their own
Torn from her place of rest
To be unwillingly used as a pawn
In a despicable game
A game of blackmail
And intimidation
To force her families hand
And to be discarded like rubbish
Fly tipped as by gypsies
Or cast like runes by a careless seer
Left to the elements
The old bones of an old lady
Who in life earned eternal peace
Left Like unwanted trash
Unceremoniously dumped
Strewn amongst a hedgerow
In the name of animal rights

RIP Gladys Hammond