‘Balance Sheet’ (Hymn to the New Omagh Road): (1971) by John Montague

‘Balance Sheet’ (Hymn to the New Omagh Road): (1971) by John Montague

Loss
Item: The shearing away of an old barn
criss-cross of beams where pigeons moan
high small window where the swallow built
white-washed dry-stone walls.

Item: The suppression of stone lined paths
Old potato-boiler full of crocuses
Overhanging lilac or laburnum
Sweet pea climbing the fence.

Item: The filling-in of chance streams
uncovered wells, all unchannelled sources
of water that might weaken foundations
bubbling over with macadam.

Item: The disappearance of all signs
of wild life, wren’s or robin’s nest,
a rabbit nibbling a coltsfoot leaf,
a stray squirrel or water rat.

Item: The uprooting of wayside hedges
With their accomplices, devil’s bit and pee the bed,
Prim rose and dog rose, an unlawful
Assembly of thistles

Item: The removal of all hillocks
and humps, superstition styled fairy forts
and long barrows, now legally to be regarded
as obstacles masking a driver’s view.

Gain
Item: 10 men from the district being for a period of time
fully employed, their 10 wives could buy groceries
and clothes to send 30 children content to school for a
few months, and raise local merchants’ hearts by paying their bills.

Item: A man driving from Belfast to Londonderry can
arrive a quarter of an hour earlier, a lorry load of
goods ditto, thus making Ulster more competitive
in the international market.

Item: A local travelling from the prefabricated suburbs of
by-passed villages can manage an average of 50
rather than 40 m.p.h. on his way to see relatives in
Omagh hospital or lunatic asylum.

Item: The dead of Garvaghey graveyard (including my
Grandfather) can have an unobstructed view – the trees
having been sheared away for a carpark – of the living
passing at great speed, sometimes quick enough to come straight in…

Let it be clear
That I do not grudge my grandfather
This long delayed pleasure!
I like the idea of him
Rising from the rotting boards of the coffin
With his J. P’s white beard
And penalizing drivers
For travelling faster
Than jaunting cars