Cattle-count - by
1, the rust-red one, hide-gleaming:
/ 2, the blackandwhite one,
/ like a pied crow:
/ 3, the zebra-hide, long belly-knotted:
/ 4, the…
farming
The Mitchells - by
I am seeing this: two men are sitting on a pole
/ they have dug a hole for and will, after dinner,…
Coalend Hill Farm 1962 - by
I don’t remember the Beanley orra-man,
/ his boots down the lonnen black as a wet day, his caravan
/ under a butchered elm’s…
Unjust Praise - by
In the beginning
/ The spirit moving
/ Upon the face of the waters
/ And in the breaking waves
/ Tasted salt
/
/ And I see fields of it
/ Drying…
Taxman - by
Seven scythes leaned at the wall.
/ Beard upon golden beard
/ The last barley load
/ Swayed through the yard.
/ The girls uncorked the ale.
/ Fiddle and…
A Plooman’s Lament - by
I’m fee’d tae a fermer in Fife,
/ I’se warrant we pairt at the term;
/ I was ne’er sae…
The Whistle - by
He cut a sappy sucker from the muckle rodden-tree,
/ He trimmed it, an’ he wet it, an’ he thumped it on…
Farm Sale - by
Everything is numbered and must go
/ so he sits at the back of the shed
/ while the crowd pick over…
The Big Mistake - by
the shepherd on the train told me
/
/ is to clip hill milking ewes too soon
/
/ I put my newspaper down;
/ he’d got my…
Herd - by
A single dog is sent Away bye.
/ Mothers, a day’s warmth in their bodies,
/ rise reluctant from nests of flattened grass;
/ barge hard…