Mark Goodwin
On Ardnamurchan
A ewe on her side, her back downhill; she tries
a horrible run. The heath is peat-blackened
where her hooves have scuffed
out hours of running nowhere,
sick and blind. Gulls, crows or ravens have pecked
out her eyes. Her lamb bleats; wants milk. I try
to stand this ill ewe, but she flails - falls
like a sodden bale of wool. ‘What can you do?’
- your voice refracts the frail light. ‘Nothing,
she’s better dead.’ You plead. ‘No, she’s better dead.’
Her lamb knows this: tries
to suckle another ewe - driven by being alive.
I consider ending her pain, but I haven’t the courage.
You couldn’t stand it, and perhaps you’d hate me.
‘Can’t we catch her lamb?’ you ask as you see it refused
another mother’s milk. It bleats. It looks at us.
‘Can’t we catch it? Can’t you catch it?’ your voice soaks
through me like the sea harrowing Sanna Bay’s sand.
Your clear un-pecked eyes shock. Your gentle figure is,
momentarily, in danger of fading into the ground.
I know my touch can do nothing.
Later, in the grass-streeted village of Sanna,
we stop the post-man - ask him to carry your message:
‘Tell the shepherd!’
Page(s) 84
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