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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Frieda Hughes

Voices: Amid the rolling Shropshire countryside, I came across unexpected beauty

PUB SUPPER AND THE F1 EDITION

Tractors towing trailers of rolled bales the size of small cars

Towered over us, our motorbikes piercing the gaps

Between hedges and wheels as big as grindstones,

Evading impalement on the suspended spikes of hay tedders

Being dragged between fields to fluff dead grass

In the relentless heat beneath an undefended sun.

At the pub in the middle of nowhere for a steak and ale pie

We watched no one pass by. The bar filled, the hot air rising

Until we stepped out into the amber of a condensed summer

Where the turn of the Earth was already cooling its crust,

And there it was, one man’s transport, another man’s dream,

As slick and menacing as any aspiration. An almost impossibility

Of matte green Aston Martin Vantage, F1 Edition.

Of 200, this one had chosen here and now to be evident.

I cast my eye over possible owners, and suddenly, he stood,

Pointing at us and shouting my partner’s name.

As improbable as the car, was their association; I watched two men

Two decades apart since they worked together back then,

Gazing through the skin of their years at their younger selves

Through the prism of a V8 Turbo Charged engine.

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