We set out that morning
Bright and determined
To make our mark
On this frozen place,
To capture
And claim it, make it
Our own, note the trees,
The glistening lake,
The bog-brown streams,
Assess its great potential
And create pointers for our return.
We had been so busy gauging
Distances and light patterns
From a low, watery sun
That it was sometime
Before we realised
We were following the path
Of a pair of foxes;
Overnight hunters
That in daylight had become
Ghosts of themselves
Leaving only an impression
Of survival and fierce parenthood.
One branched off into the forest.
We followed the other
Up into the high plain
Where we lost him,
Or her,
Though they had only existed
In our imaginations
Like dreams.
We were silent
On our way back.
As silent as the ghosts
We too were destined to become.
Teresa Godfrey is a freelance writer with two children’s dramas broadcast on Channel 4. Her Allingham Award winning story, The Jackdaw in the Attic, was broadcast on radio. She is the recipient of the EU New Media Talent Award for her screenplay adaptation of the novel Black Harvest by Ann Pilling and she has written five feature length screenplays on commission. She was the founder of the award winning TIDY Theatre Company, and has been co-ordinator for a number of television documentaries produced by Besom Productions. Teresa currently lives in Enniskillen and is working on a poetry collection and a stage play.
