Local Colour



Harvest machines squeeze the lanes, drag the cut maize to store. Maize grows fast and feral, it must be chopped fast, it is the kind of crop that might make a run for it.
It should be quiet then, down by the river, the field there is ploughed neat, lies waiting.
Butterflies: scraps of bombazine caught on thorny stems.
Brown earth, bared, corduroyed. Sky flows blue. In the hedge greens are vivid pips: the purplish sloes, the red hips.
Beyond, below, the river, the bigger river has eaten up all the rain.
Something slaps the water surface, unseen, unexplained.
At the edge, where Dog's swim sets a Mallard drake to wing, one bright thing, turquoise shining, faceted, flies panoramic.
Gorged eyes follow the field edge, the fatted twilled grass, the splay pattern seed tops. They find a spider, tucked in, patiently waiting to tuck in. It sits perfectly still for a photograph.
Brown deer, paused, cashmere. White bobs of buttock flee against the hedged green: leaves quiver.




Comments

  1. Suze17 October 2013 at 05:02

    'Butterflies: scraps of bombazine caught on thorny stems.'

    I have no idea what bombazine is but the poetry in this sentence is off the charts. (Applause. For the whole post. :))

    ReplyDelete
  2. Geo.17 October 2013 at 07:31

    You know, I read this twice, then once aloud to myself and it got better each time. Few authors, Joan Didion, Mark Twain, could make the reader feel --I don't know-- beloved(?) You have that skill.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lisa Southard17 October 2013 at 13:08

    Bombazine is a fine twilled fabric made of silk and wool but also sometimes cotton, and one of those words that makes me smile just because it sounds so nice. The Victorians loved it in black for mourning clothes, so it seems fair to revive the word in happy circumstances. And it is important to me that when I write, though I use the odd unfamiliar word, that there is a sense of inclusiveness, kindliness- even when I write horrible things I strive to be a calm hand to hold throughout. Thank you for your applause, I love it! :-) xx

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for reading my words- my chance to read yours here:

Popular posts from this blog

Corona Creep Up

Image
Words From The Start Of Lockdown Life Mr looks to the future, it looks like hedges. Saturday March 14th 2020 On the drive to work I got bored of changing the windscreen wiper settings, then a little off-white spider raced around on the steering wheel. I blew it onto the dashboard but it jumped back. Cheeky spider. At work we are bored of coronavirus restrictions and bored at the prospect of it continuing. We don’t know anyone who has it. Supermarket shelves are missing toilet roll, dried pasta, as previously, now also tins of beans and tomatoes. There are travel bans and cancelled events. Last night I had to teach a non contact TKD session - no pads, no sparring, no hand shaking. I began my class with ‘first of all, please don’t breathe because that’s dangerous now.’ All of us are ‘meh’ about these restrictions. We understand that infection control is serious for the immune-compromised, we adhere to protocol for that reason. But the paranoia and boredom: meh. Monday March
Read more

Fun And Thievery

Image
All day marvellous words pour through my head to describe the sounds, sights, and scents of nature. This morning a light frost was laid out for our delectation, harming no flowers, stilting no birdsong. I have energy to get gardening, to plan, to write the novel, but daily life is scarcely reported upon in spite of how it describes itself to me. We are tentatively out of lockdown, allowed to meet outside in socially distanced groups of up to 6. We are allowed to teach outdoors, numbers limited by space, keeping a 2 metre gap between students (unless they are a family bubble). At home we have the gazebo set up with a picnic bench to host outdoor socialising. Internally we are weary, we are tattered lace on spindly side tables. Every little bit of rest like this morning’s coffee in bed is held onto as though I am stockpiling loveliness in order to survive. I am writing this to help ease that mentality. I would like to adjust out of isolation, I would like to be a light frost thawing
Read more