After Jean-François Millet

The Sower
Thighs braced against the curve
of field, puddled armpits
rancid in the freezing wind
he strides
diagonally down the slope
beneath a weight of sky.
From behind the ridge
the low sun catches
his left cheek, his hand, waist,
the hinge of his aching knee,
the linen-gaitered feet turning
to hooves of mud.
An outstretched arms swings
then dips and dips again into
the coarse grain sack slung
across his hunched shoulder
where the halter rasps the nape
of his raw neck. Bit beetroot hands
scatter seed on stony ground,
their moons all ragged and black.
A mercury sky. And his
scissoring bulk fills the frame
forming a large cross with the axis
of oxen dragging their heavy harrow
into the lavender, the rose-flushed dusk,
up at the picture’s edge.
Beneath his slouched felt hat
his shrouded face foretells
approaching winter,
the brooding dark. Exhaustion,
waste. Memory of famine runs
atavistic through his veins.
In a ditch a hare pricks
its ears to the wind. A black
scribble of crows writes
hunger across the sky.
From Ghost Station
Published by saltpublishing 2004