The street unlike others slopes violently down towards a peaceful river
This peculiarity goes unnoticed by many
Children roll red marbles towards the far gutters and are cursed by passers by
Tis a dangerous game you play young Harry
If a car does not end your life then you will scatter pedestrians with your silly game
I will call a policeman straight away
And as for you Julie Griggs a policeman’s daughter just look at your dress
Mrs Morris who owns the dress shop near the church sits next to me
We share tea and the occasional biscuit
Our High Street is the widest in the country
I do not answer as I know that Stockton-On-Tees has a wider street
It was built for the Bath trade
Coaches and horses by the dozen stopped in the town
Until the railways came and killed them off
The town had two stations now both closed
And Marlborough is once more stranded in its magical valley
Where children play marbles to the detriment of others
And where young ladies late of the college smoke in alleys
Away from their teachers and their mothers prim
It is the most dangerous of markets I believe
With careless traffic on both sides
I wonder why we are not killed on market days
Mr Pears the travelling florist is sitting at an adjacent table
I lost some roses to a careless bus
And what about the July sponges spread all over the road
Summer chaos such I have never seen
What a mess Mr Robert’s sponges were reported as far away as Salisbury
Murray the grocer said
As the left the café full of dread
I looked at the skies the rich vapour light was now receding with cause
Clouds were building from the west and would soon arrest the sun
I must be off now
I said with a shallow bow
My wife has done her time
At the Gleaming Plough
What was her talk about today Mr Henderson?
Millie the waitress stood at my side
Shy within her question
She was giving a talk on the poems of a countryman
It had gathered much interest although the author was not Wiltshire born
I raised my hand and then I was gone through the middle wooden door
There are no theatres in the town but I imagined one as I walked towards the common
Plays new and old would be performed and music would drift on the breeze
Towards the royal hunting grounds where the ghosts of Kings would listen with interest
You are five minutes late
I was detained by my friends
In the Polar Café I suppose
How was your talk?
Well received as they always are
Let me take your bag for the hill is steep
When I was a child I rolled green marbles down this hill
You were a legend in this town Julie Griggs that is why I married you
As we neared the common mists were beginning to cover the town
This was not unusual and only the festive lights could be seen
Even our footsteps seemed muffled as we approached our home lane
The town will be quiet tonight you know
I think not as it is New Year’s Eve
The town is always quiet when the mists arrive
Its peculiar slope has been blamed
But I know that not to be true
It’s the fault of the river and the churches two
It’s the fault of the college and the velvet dew