Monthly Archives: January 2015
Winter Schooling
Grass showed briefly at the start of the week,
allowing the cattle to expatiate-
(how satisfying to use a word in its rural purity-
such as ‘aftermath’:
greenery returning after harvest.
Rivers and hunting trails
traced under city streets
like veins under skin
for those of us that keep
our hands fit
for milking and digging
and knives
in our pockets.)
but we are now constrained again,
returning for shelter
as the snow falls once more,
adding six inches to post tops
slowly toppling.
The cattle cluster
round fodder bales,
wild birds appear daily
to be fed
with chickens.
The white cape is thrown
like a threat,
tensing life tight.
Two heifers we school
to the rope
walk quietly
when led from the pen
to rehearse circles
silently
in the largeness
of the whitened yard.
Silent under trees
I stand looking at larch
planted in a semicircle
on the lip of a small quarry
grave spectators.
The grove is white and quiet,
skinny birches twist
along the brae
like hieroglyphs
on a white sheet.
Retreating to pasture
I am met by a light wind
blowing in my face
turned southwards.
The water in the burn
is running with snowmelt
released.
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