Summertime And Leaving Is Easy

by Andrew Scotson
23rd May 2015

Yellow bobbing flowers surround me

mile after climbing mile of all consuming rape.

Not easter's fresh greeting

this is summer demanding

I AM HERE.

The lambs still cry

but now they must leave their mother

the land will grow dry,

they must toughen up,

search for themselves,

loose baby fat, be stout legged

and strong hearted.

Mud has solidified

hard stone filled ruts

beneath the wheels,

the car hides beneath the blanket

as dark draws the covers,

the last farmer raises the blades

and heads off.

I wind down the window

breathing slow, shoes off

coat tossed in the back,

squashed dead flies kiss the screen,

relax, count to ten

sleep comes quickly,

legs on the passenger seat.

my dream is immediate, a crow hops, black beady eyes

beaming, he is picking at a corpse, a dead lamb, peck

after peck pulling warm intestines from the bloody red belly.

his head ricochets with a butchers effort as the youthful

carcass is deconstructed.

Comments

Sorry, forgot missing hyphens:

all-consuming

strong-hearted

And it's lose, not loose - unless you meant that the baby fat is loose..

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Jimmy
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Jimmy Hollis i Dickson
24/05/2015

A cheery little poem!

Might I suggest that you add "The" to the title: "Summertime And The Leaving Is Easy"?

You also don't explain - or even seem to hint at (though this is possibly me being obtuse) - which leaving you're talking about. If you're going to plagiarise a famous song title, shouldn't you justify it? You could mention the trees coming into leaf. Or is the irrelevance of the title intentional? (I've done this on occasion.)

I find the "dead" in "squashed dead flies" superfluous.

Final criticism: "butchers" should include an apostrophe, no?

Aside from all that, I enjoyed it.

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Jimmy
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Jimmy Hollis i Dickson
24/05/2015