The Rape

O' Cocklebie

Taken from the 1973 Bonnet Guild Festival Guide

A white blanket patched with

Jade spreads across the fields,

And gells with the cool horizon.

Silver birches clouded in sugar

Almond snow spring from frozen

Tussocks submerged in the

Water plantain - last bastion

Of quietude. The Cocklebie larches.

Isolated, perhaps doomed; strain

Towards the turquoise sky; unheard

Whispers sigh through the skeletal

Branches probing the gentle people

Who moved around the steading.

But! Are no longer there.

Yellow Mastodons macerate the fields,

Hinged fangs devour our vista.

Come summer the setting sun will 

Be scanter by one semi-detached,

And dusk will stalk a warmer

Darkness, but! to-day the earth

Eaters rummage through a jig-saw

Puzzle called 'Chez Nous' and an

Ivory sun pulls long shadows

Into a brittle silence.