with acknowledgements to Philip Larkin
Days are for remembering objects, places, and people
we would otherwise forget.
Rutland has vanished from the map, not the memory.
Cambridge has gobbled up Huntingdonshire despite
Prime Ministerial backing and fronting.
Radnor became Powys regardless of protest.
Roxborough and Selkirk sank into the vagueness of ‘Borders’.
Middlesex has a university, cricket team, a bank on
the Thames,
(referred to on Boat Race days only) but no civic or political role.
Cumbria consumed Westmorland and Cumberland;
Berkshire has lost its bite.
Cheshire and Bedfordshire watch out.
Swindon has bitten a chunk out of Wiltshire.
Nowhere is safe.
Let’s have a Middlesex Day; a Selkirk Sunday,
a Rutland Remembrance day, lest we forget.