Stone Lion Mystery

Author: Stephen Coan
Date: 21 Nov 2005

Broomfield Park and the house was a childhood haunt of mine in the 50's and 60's and in later years I wrote a poem based on an incident involving the stone lion. It was subsequently published in a South African literacy journal and it is below for your interest.

Best wishes for the planned restoration.

The Stone Lion in Broomfield Park

The sparrows fly up, cheeping a warning
simon is on safari, through the flowerbeds,
searching for spoor ears alert , for an igneous roar

What food for lions in Broomfield Park?

The white bread-fed swans?
Sculptural as cake decorations, livers ready pated?
rather be stone and postpone the need for hunting
Though it is like a pity, pekinise ankle biters, cannot be disembollowed with a paw- flick

Inviolate green grass, brown earth, raked and sacred- the holy sanctuaries of suburbia, safe from trophy hunters the stone lion suns himself barred by petunias...

Breaking all the rules
simon braves the lion in his den of flowers
sandals puncturing the earth, leaving a trail, leading to a four year old boy astride the king of beasts

proud parents of a delinquent son say-
come back it's not allowed, you can't do that litle daniel says a granny

threatened with the park- keeper
simon escapes in the nick of time, he had felt the stone begin to stir, and above the sound of the summer bees
the beginnings of a purr..

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