Deborah Tyler-Bennett
Dale Fiddler, Downbanks
Coat edges resembling nibbled grass, boots scraffling scree,
Jimmy Dyer, crooked against sleet, heading for Carlisle
where his fiddle’ll scrape supper.
Fired curls pushed into a stove-in stovepipe
he’s careful of the fiddle case, his livelihood.
Around him, hills dark coated as a funeral bidder.
Distant farm lights, huts he passes
sink like his hat, occupied by sheps and pyats,
he hasn’t time to join flinty music.
On his horizon, elms could be lost travellers,
his mouth creases at thoughts of hill madness
that brought him here to practise
tunes down in some lonely
hollow, his only
corn spilt winter sun.
Ice bees gather,
lamb skull’s
clinging wool
recalls trouble.
Next hut, he’s
in, before snow’s comforter muffles.
Downbanks - downhill.
Sheps and pyats - Cumbrian for starlings and magpies.
Sheps and pyats - Cumbrian for starlings and magpies.
Page(s) 67
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