A Drink With Ted Hughes
Written by Sharon Dunne
“Fancy a drink?” said Ted
with an affable grin and a flick of his floppy grey locks.
I mumbled I would, but looked on in dread
as he whipped out a pair of green hiking socks.
“You’ll need these then – and these.”
And he threw at my feet an old pair of walking boots,
as I thought to myself with a certain unease
that Ted’s ‘drink’ involved outdoor pursuits.
With a sniff of the air
he bounded away and was lost in the heathland scrub.
“Come back, Ted!” I yelled. “What’s wrong with you, man?
That isn’t the way to the pub!”
When I found him flat out in a mountain stream
I gasped “Are you totally tapped?”
“I may well be,” he cried “but this water’s not!”
And he lowered his head down and lapped.