Lee Harwood
MACHINES
1.
In the darkness you could hear hooting noises, ahead?
somewhere "out there". As though ships were passing in
the nearby estuary. Or maybe a distant freight-yard.
In such blackness the strings of yellow lights
"illuminating the scene" could only be imagined. The
stacks of timber and oil drums, the quiet of the night.
Across the field maybe the dark outline of a wood.
That's another possibility.
Enclosed in such a state. The dark pressing in, felt
brushing one's face and hands, "the soft fur of nights".
2.
In the darkness of the cottage, midday, and the large
stone fireplace filled with wood ash.
Up behind the cottage the beech woods, below, the steep
green slopes down to the valley. The trees and valley a
soft grey white with the mist and drizzle of early autumn .
In the darkness of the cottage...
"breaking down at the
continual brutality of it all, and my failure, once again.
The tears flow down my face. I bury my head in the arms
of the woman I've also failed."
A mile and a quarter walk away a black farm raincoat lies
neatly folded up beside a tall hedge with a sharpening
stone and bill hook laid on top of it.
