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  • Digging
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Digging

Alan Jackson

fallen in a heap
again
why do i keep
falling in a heap?

i got plaster
i got bricks
i got a boxful
of tradesman’s tricks
i got cement
well it’s still in the bag
there isn’t a tap here
that’s the drag
i got sand
i got trowels
i got my dad’s
good set of rules
the architect’s plan
said build a square
but i read it wrong
and built it in air
he laughed like a demon
when he saw what i’d done
said Won’t last a minute
in a good-going sun
dig down there
with the help of your brutes
it won’t be a square
unless it has roots
so i dug
and i’m digging
and i’ll dig
but digging’s not the trouble
it’s getting rid
of the rubble
he specifically said
I don’t care what’s done
with what you throw out of here
but we’re delving to go up again
and the surface must be clear
and here i’m surrounded
i’m mountained and mounded
with more rubbish than hole
and no barrows at all

fallen in a heap
again
why do i keep
falling in a heap?


Alan Jackson

from Salutations: Collected Poems 1960-1989 (Edinburgh: Polygon, 1990)

Reprinted by permission of the author.

Tags:

building learning strife work
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Alan Jacksonb.1938

Alan Jackson is a Scottish poet and writer who established influential poetry readings at the Edinburgh Festival in the 1960s.
More about Alan Jackson

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