Our Own Turf by Sue Millard

 

 


Sue Millard lives in Cumbria, England. Her website,

http://www.jackdawebooks.co.uk/

showcases her published output of novels and non-fiction which tend to feature horses, carriage-driving, romance, history and rural life. Her poems have been published by, e.g., The Interpreter’s House, Pennine Platform, Pirene’s Fountain, Butcher’s Dog, Lighten Up Online, Snakeskin, and Prole. Her 2012 collection, Ash Tree, was published by Prole:

http://www.prolebooks.co.uk

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Own Turf 

 

 

 

 

 

Upland grasses scratch and spring, matted

like kitchen scourers. Tangle-maned

mare and fell foal know their grass-roots.

 

Every hill-hardy blade of sweet turf

ties hoof to heaf. Here the herds live,

turn tails to kill-cold winds, are roofed

by unhaltered tumbled sky.

 

Men in suits, with city hands, tape

numbers into rules that hold us

to account, for living here. They discount

our turf that coated the bare rock

with centuries of carbon from old stars.

 

 

Sue Millard

 

 

Homecoming by Sue Millard

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