Signs of Spring

         
Kale stalks bleached and white          
wait plough and harrow          
 leaves, long since turned to milk ,              
their job well done.          
Sheep no more chew at turnips          
fields bare and brown ready for the plough.          
In the field next door lambs skip and gambol  ,          
grateful mothers now chew grass,                 
earth on the move, signs of spring ,         
bird song and whites of rabbits tails.          
tractors blocking  roads, make us late for tea          
Smells of slurry fertilise  hungry soils.         
manure from cattle sheds,stinks in  trailers          
dumped in rows beside trimmed hedges,.         
 
Mud and dung on number plates       
This is country in its honesty,        
a factory by any other name,          
Inconvenient, stubborn   .   .   . beautiful,           
to be misunderstood by many ,  
in cars on Sunday afternoons.