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:
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
