Vincent Berquez: Following the farmer’s dog

Vincent Berquez

 

Following the farmer’s dog

 

The children follow the sheepdog

who follows its master along

the glassy road of chilly children’s

feet and the scar under the icy paw

of the working dog beneath it.

 

The echoing laughter of children,

the solid animals slowly scratching

the hardened ground of the harsh

winter and tumbling white crystals.

 

The intimate covering amplifies

the skipping children full of laughter

on the harsh diamonds beneath them,

as the slippery earth trips them up;

 

and the dog’s scarred paw cuts deep

in the cold and it moves fast to feel less

of the freezing ground beneath

following its master towards the flock.

 

And afterwards the children will drink

hot drinks and the farmer and his scuttling

dog will eat hot food, and the cattle

will be revived on this Christmas Eve,

this twinkling morning of dusky daylight.

 

24.12.2010

vincent berquez poetry

kempis.nl poetry magazine

More in: Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez