HADRIAN’S WALL

On a lonely hill on a spartan plain, a snaking wall lays down its claim

As chief preventer of pointless wars.

He kept the raging Picts away, away from the Roman wealth and prosperity,

An easy challenge for such a beast.

The Romans were like a rhino, swatting away the puny Picts

And he was the horn of that rhino.

But the Romans are now long gone and dead, lost in past times.

He can’t accept this, can’t let go.

Howling in despair he thinks of his former life.

He had so much to live for;

The sweat and chaos of war, the meaningful clang of metal.

Now his mighty collage of whinstone is unemployed,

Protecting only ghosts, no purpose.

And is it possible that this wall, this mighty lone warrior,

Is beginning to falter?

His cracked and weary form is slowly suffocating

Under the pounding of a million marching feet.

Children jump, stamp and run on his soul.

Have they no respect?

Drones pound angrily along the path,

Their noise a thousand arrows.

He now thinks about time out-running him,

The noise and bedlam surrounding him.

Then his sturdy, upright , revered form

He knew, long ago,

By Tom Creffield, Aged 10 years of Shincliffe C of E. Primary School

JOINT WINNER

The 2006 Northumbrian Association's Young Writer's Award