4x4

Rick rick rickety
     We sing as wheels squeak on
The dry dry track

Three mouths open in delight
     We laugh
Rocks thrown off cliff    -    forgotten?

Never the same peak
     Never the same mount
Snake-like track up, up    up

Cicadas scream in Corsica
     Bet you never
Went on on on in Corsica

Swelter and burn
     Leather and sand
Guide through LOUDSPEAKERS

A bat once crash-landed
     On my brother's shelf
Pupils dilated scared scared scared

Poor bat
     We sang
Poor tiny frail     bat

Across Désert des Adriates
     Up up   up you go
Sing until your breath comes up in reckless immersion with invisible droplets high high high

Beautiful the parents purr
     Look sea trees bees breeze
Children behave how beautiful

Busy holding breath
     When we gonna dive
When we gonna fall over and down down down -

Soon we fall
     Rollercoaster we used to play
Throw hands up trying to grab

The air above
     One with the cicadas and the pine and the rocks
And the    bat

Reaching the beach
     (Prettiest in Europe pretty please parents say)
(Almost) takes the fun away

Now back to sun cream and balls
     And staring at blank azure
As if there wasn't a moment in world

Where we fell at 300 per second
      Down down down    up up
And we sang rick rick rickety

In sync with cicadas.

-©Estelle Wallis, May 2019