Guns are booming over the town once more

And men and women from the seventeenth century

Patrol the streets and mingle with the Saturday shoppers

War is never far away

 

The chatter of the muskets does not disturb Mrs P

As she cleans the brasses in the school chapel

Watched by generations of long dead boys

Only the high birds are startled by the noise  

 

In the High Street select travellers express surprise

As they are told that the journey to Bedwyn is now free

The bus company has gone bust

Foreclosed by a German bank

 

The battle still rages and little Sally and Long Tall John

Eat ice creams as they watch many men die

Cut down by gunfire and impaled on spikes

The children are safe as this war knows its boundaries

 

In front of the Golding house on The Green

A student named Macaby reads

Lord of the Flies

She leaves as torturous schoolboys are in short supply

 

And retires to the church to take afternoon tea

Viewing the paintings that are on display

Lemon Drizzle is her preferred choice

But she settles for the Coffee Cream

 

Above her a youth names Michaels

Has climbed the tower

He has lost his camera

So he commits the views to memory  

  

An hour later he meets his girlfriend

In the middle town market

She has purchased some late limes

Which are always cheaper after three pm

 

The battle has now finished and the town folk leave

Bodies lie everywhere

Staining the common with their conflict

But they return to life and dismantle the day

 

Muskets and cannons swords and spikes

Are packed into car boots and larger vans

And are removed to a local inn

The Battle of Marlborough is now complete

 

On the hill above the college just hidden the view

A local lad and a country girl

Prepare to play a jest on his father

An upstanding master and teacher of sports

 

I see their humour as I leave the town
with the wife and daughter of Mr Brown

 

 

During the weekend of the 26/27th July 2014, The Battle of Marlborugh was recreated on the common above the town