Kathleen Bell
Grace Darling at Alnwick Castle - after the Forfarshire
‘And there was no more sea.’
Inland tastes of chaff and honey.
The earth is rich with grain.
Pigs, sheep are humble. Silent, the soft-eyed calves
Tender their docile necks to the farmer’s knife
And streams run sweet.
By night the seals swim close
Pushing through nightmare in a moment’s grace
Till they slide, laugh, clap - bloated mistakes
Disturbing dreams.
The taste of salt is gone.
I am made soft as soil. My task is set:
Obey the ladies, watch, give answer to their
Endless questions.
‘Books and my father schooled me -
I learned the Bible, sermons, tales of peoples,
Countries elsewhere.’ Read polish clean write cipher -
Oceans and words.
‘Always busy at home,
We harvest the sea. Cormorant, sea-weed, eggs
Are good for food.’ Seals we must skin and salt,
Which we take, eat.
The woman flapped like a bird
When we rowed to Harcar. ‘Spray was fierce, hit hard’
At her closed and stone-dead sons whom we took, laid
Limp on black rock.
‘But surely suffering saves?’
Riches do not ennoble. I have been carried
Far from my work and set among ladies,
Dull, indolent, useless,
Wicked as seals.
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Page(s) 12-13
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