Tempus Fugit, by ​Rosalind Adam

Tempus Fugit, by Siobhan Coppinger and Alec and Fiona Peever (UK) 1990. Click image for sculpture information.

Tempus Fugit
​ 
No, this was not Adlestrop 
although it was a hot June day 
and the stop was unwonted 
but there was no hiss of steam,
 
no meadowsweet or willow-herb. 
What I saw was a single name – Templecombe, 
a bee-busy bed of lavender and neatly clipped lawn 
alongside the Waterloo Express.
 
Time had ceased to fly.
No one left and, indeed, no one came.
Only a bronze stationmaster
populated the bare platform
 
standing proud, one arm raised,
frozen in time, sculpted
in the act of ripping sheets 
from his bronze-bound timetable
 
rendered obsolete by the digital display.
No sound could be heard, 
not even a Somerset blackbird,
above the diesel engine thrum
 
and then the train juddered, 
as if clearing its throat,
Time unfurled its wings
and Templecombe slid away.
  
Rosalind Adam

​Rosalind Adam is a Leicester, UK, girl, born and bred. She is the author of three children’s books, including The Children’s Book of Richard III. Her poetry has been published in a number of anthologies and online sites. In 2018 she won the G. S. Fraser poetry prize and was awarded a distinction for her Masters in Creative Writing at The University of Leicester.