The War Office called for a water-diviner
at Gallipoli – Çanakkale Savaşı.
Instead, four geologists disembarked,
ready to find water, each marked
by a sunburned patch on the back of their neck.
A diviner was wanted, not geologists
No-one had yet surveyed the land
below North Hill – the central axis of the malvern
range. The most ancient, where rowan branches
grow to dowsing rods. Where the geologist’s wife
First Slips on the wet grass, breaks course,
knowing these rocks are absent.