Jonathan Chant
The Electric Line
The electric line ran the length of the field. It signified that the
sheep would soon be here. And with them, spring.
He'll lie in his bed, hear the sound of their teeth tearing the grass
from the earth. All night he'll hear them bleat.
The sheep will come right up to his walls. They'll rip the grass
right out from under the A-frame. Their woolly rumps will bump
the thin walls. The caravan will rock on its wheels.
In the mornings he'll open his door. The sheep will skitter, ripple
away like a woollen tide.
Loud paint. Green as punk, red as blood. These spots will signify
that these sheep belong to his landlord.
This will go on for weeks. Having to step around the droppings
that will glisten and shine like lumps of coal in the green fires of
the lush grass.
The bleating and tearing will get into his blood. The impassive
slot-eyed expressions. Rushing the pick-up truck, the farmer's son
in his flat cap, chomping a cheap cigar, tossing feed and straw
from the bed.
Sometimes they'll talk. And for men of few words, shy of each
other, they'll have a lot to say.
Page(s) 22
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The