Kennet Avon
Reading: Kennet swerves to Thames.
We start to walk, upstream,
the little green English river beside us,
Bristol our end.
Kennet easters, wester we,
each on our own business,
parallel but opposite,
enjoying the other’s contrary impetus
in mutual respect.
Switchback at Cadley Lock:
our companion water
no longer contra
but similarly aimed.
Its congruence encourages,
yet I miss our agreeing
to move in opposite directions
side-by-side.
~
Kate McLoughlin lives in Iffley, Oxfordshire