The Finger Post

Across the field, beyond the church. You see the sign post stand. And towards the highway lean and lurch. With crazy outstretched hand. Faint marks upon whose surface show Where letters once were traced; Which wind and weather, long ago, Have more than half effaced. What matters it if near or far The place whose name was writ? The course the sign post bids you steer Will never lead to it. One moonless night (I sometimes think) When all the cats were grey, Some homebound reveller, filled with drink, Came rolling up this way. Who, pixy led, through wind and shower Went rambling all night long, And whiled away the passing hour With staves of hiccuped song. All night he tumbled out and in Of thicket, ditch and mire, Bestuck with burrs from heel to chin And scratched by many a brier. They led him round till dawn almost, And last, in playful mood, They changed him to a Finger Post And left him there for good. And still he stands and leans about As he must surely fall, And points the Road to Nowhere out Where is no road at all. He points the way through ditch and hedge, And over field and furrow, And water meadow speared with sedge And banks where rabbits burrow. By dale and down he points you still, And on the skylines rim The scarecrow from the windy Hill Waves blithely back to him.