#479 - the missing mattock

 

22.iv.21

479

2.82

the missing mattock

on Earth Day

 

must be somewhere in the rain

or under what was

leant against lost day

 

has found its mate behind the shed

and they together mischief?

 

mattock tricks the blunt invention

chips curses

 

I seek it in the creek

neither snath nor scythe

run with where the mulch sit

up against tomorrow

 

not golf

but swing

and blister mister

sworn privet foe

 

the farmer’s friends lie thick just here

 

I see it – swollen grain

as the crop gone under

furrows lost, one pumpkin down

 

a mind’s eye mattock – shape of clouds

dark corner lurk by two stroke fume

sullen, lacking occupation

 

it is of tree and earth

 

dear mattock

are you where?

and we’ll again together

strike steel roots to grub

and will they yield

but yes?

 

comes trumpet to lantana doom

 

much missed

in these my empty hands –

we of the adventure

 

high over the shoulder

and clod in the eye

occasional spark struck

clay though mainly

 

a primitive – serfs bore such

legions marched with

 

might have been whale or antler once

invented by the god Enlil

on days when he was bored

 

a hole is to dig

said someone

and shovel come along

 

share of what the plough’s about

this never will be sword