Getting the Milk
Balance from the sharp dairy, across the farmyard
past the walled garden of Carsaig House
into the wet pasture, booby-trapped with cowpats.
An awkward handle curves from the churn's shoulders,
a swollen thumb of metal stoppers its mouth -
get the rhythm wrong and the canister exhales
sour breath, bruises you all the way.
Green hazes uphill to the fence and gate -
a puffin sat here once, its beak a felt-tip frenzy.
Pause for the final steps through the garden.
In the kitchen's busy warmth, the churn's metallic
stink is lifted high above me, the clatter
carried to the freckled slab of pantry marble.
Alone, I'm unweighted, light as childhood.
Page(s) 13
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