Fossils

And then she saw me creeping, Saw and stood Transfixed upon the fringes of the wood, And straight went leaping.

Headlong down the pitch Of the curved hill, Over the ditch And through the skirt of bushes by the rill She pelted screaming,

Swerved from the water sideways with a twist Just as I clutched and missed. Flashed white beneath my hand and doubled back, Swift as a twisting hare upon her track, Hot for the hill again, But all in vain.

Her hair swung far behind, Straight as a stream balanced upon the wind, O, it was black, dipped In the dregs of midnight with a spark Caught from a star that smouldered in the dark.

It I gripped, Drew for a moment tight, Jerked with a victor's cry Down in the grasses high Her to the hot, brown earth and threatened— daft, And then she laughed.