They’ve taken them away. I noticed there was more light, in the gloom. And no shadows. I didn’t need a torch. That was when I realised. I’d stopped to look. Turned back. They’d gone. The dog rose bushes had disappeared. I rue it. The smell of them was so redolent of making ‘perfume’ as a girl. That sweet headiness that would often catch you a few steps on. Sweetest in the late summer still-heat. Gone. I am sad.
