McAvanagh's Hill

Alan had stood at our open door,

Shaking and white with fright,

First he was speaking to Eleanor,

Then had a word with Dwight.

‘What seems the problem,’ I said to him,

(My name, by the way, is Bill),

‘Haven't you seen it,’ he said to me,

‘It’s moving, McAvanagh’s Hill!’

 

I went to the door and I looked on out,

The hill seemed to still be in place,

On closer inspection, it seemed to me

It had moved to the south, a trace.

‘It must be a trick of the light,’ I said,

A hill is a hill and can’t move,’

‘But look at McCafferty’s,’ Alan said,

‘It’s settling down in a groove.’

 

And true, but McCafferty’s roof had moved,

It used to stand up on the height,

The moon would come up just behind his roof

And highlight his house every night.

His house had dropped down the back of the hill

Or the top of the hill was too high,

‘Now isn’t that strange?’ I said in a muse,

And Dwight said, ‘I wonder why?’

 

The rumbling, grumbling started that night

But deep in the earth, underneath,

And Eleanor came in a panic to cry,

‘There’s movement, out there on the heath!’

We ran to the garden, and under the moon

We could see the heath starting to tilt,

As slowly it moved, and then it became

The rising front side of the hill.

 

Alan ran home and brought back a gun

He said, ‘I feel better with this!’

‘You think you can stop it by firing a gun?’

‘At least with a hill, you can’t miss.

There’s something behind it, something so weird,

A hill can’t just move by itself.’

Then Eleanor suddenly burst into tears,

‘The Devil’s come into the Dell!’

 

We didn’t get very much sleep that night,

We took it in turns just to watch,

The nearer the movement came up to our door

The more Alan knocked off my Scotch.

We felt the first tilt of the house next day,

Our porch was beginning to rise,

The hill loomed above us, and leaning back,

The house pointed up to the skies.

 

McCafferty’s house had quite disappeared

As it slid down the other side,

While our house was on the way to the top,

It was really a question of pride.

McCafferty lorded it over us all

As long as his house was on top,

But now he came racing along, was appalled,

‘I order this movement to stop!’

 

‘I know you’re behind it, you’ve conjured a scheme,

What set this in motion, Bill?’

I shrugged and I mentioned that my hands were clean,

‘It is, after all, just a hill!’

‘My real estate value just fell through the floor,

I’ll sue if you don’t move it back!’

‘Then go for it Buddy, there isn’t a court

That can order a hill… See you Jack.’

 

We’re sitting in clover, our house at the top

Of what was McAvanagh’s Hill,

For once it had moved, it suddenly stopped

And now it’s the Hill of Bill!

McCafferty sits down the hill in a glade

And he rages at everyone,

While Alan’s deluded, he swears at this stage

That it stopped when it noticed his gun.

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Barbz]

The Bards imagination, it gets my mind to think, of ones fascination with houses on the brink. I have, in fact seen dwellings falling down the hill, Mother Natures doing that makes one feel quite ill. But houses that will rise, to the highest that they will, felt as weird to McCafferty, as it did to Mr. Bill.

[Vishuddha]

I thought this only happened in Burnham Woods. Fun poem.

[Marie]

I'm not sure I'd like to end up with my house at the top of a hill. It can move again, despite what Alan thinks. If he drinks enough Scotch, he's not going to be able to hit a hill...

[Valentine]

Must have been a terribly big gun or he was a very good shot, I have seen were houses went down but never up. I think only you could come up with this tale Mate. Kathie

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

Alan, Alan, Alan how I wonder for your sanity! well done, good read.

[R Smith]

great imagination on this one David and a hill that's scared of a gun, that's gotta be a gem of an idea to stretch the imagination, it had me going all over the place but i know a good thing when i see one and this is one :)

[MomzillaNC]

Weird and wonderful! This was so completely engaging that I was sad to read the denouement!