Roasting chestnuts

As I step off the bus
      I notice on the verge
of the woods
      the spiky cupules
swollen with fruit
      hanging in abundance
on the sweet chestnut
      and I remember
the days of picking
      in other autumns
long long ago
      the fields I crossed
as I made my way to school
      my shoes damp with the dew
and later in the day
      the nuts roasted
on the open coals
      salted and shared
by the family
      by the fireside

John Lyons