WHAT WAS YOUR PERSPECTIVE on the world when you

Were housed here? Was this shell a warm place -

A cocoon of security, a window

Through which you might gaze out upon a world

More colourful than you? – these polished

Walls safe haven in vulnerability?

The soft sensitive facets in me would be glad of

Such a marvellous shell as yours from time to

Time, and yet I own gladness that I may

Stand for your protected fragility is

No more and here amid the joys of today’s

Peaceful shore I found only your shell and

Echo in an ear that was once your land

.

Grateful thanks to Andrew Rudd, Cheshire Poet Laureate 2006, for inspiration and encouragement