1. His bicycle stood at the window-sill,
2. The rubber cowl of a mud-splasher
3. Skirting the front mudguard,
4. Its fat black handlegrips
5. Heatin in sunlight, the "spud"
6. Of the dynamo gleaming and cocked back,
7. The pedal treads hanging relieved
8. Of the boot of the law.
9. His cap was upside down
10. On the floor, next his chair.
11. The line of his pressure ran like a bevel
12. In his slightly sweating hair.
13. He had unstrapped
14. The heavy ledger, and my father
15. Was making tillage returns
16. In acres, roods, and perches.
17. Arithmetic and fear.
18. I sat staring at the polished holster
19. With its buttoned flap, the braid cord
20. Looped into hthe revolver butt.
21. "Any other root crops?
22. Mangolds? Marrowstems? Anything like that?"
23. "No." But was there not a line
24. Of turnips where the seed ran out
25. In the potato field? I assumed
26. Small guilts and sat
27. Imagining the black hole in the barracks.
28. He stood up, shifted the baton-case
29. Further round on his belt,
30. Closed the domesday book,
31. Fitted his cap back with two hands,
32. And looked at me as he said goodbye.
33. A shadow bobbed in the window.
34. He was snapping the carrier spring
35. Over the ledger. His boot pushed off
36. And the bicycle ticked, ticked, ticked.
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