BENYBONT
Matthew Spittles
Lambing Time in Wales
They level out up valley,
As though about to dive and strafe,
But instead they pass
And drag
Exploding sound two hundred feet above.
Silence comes together, slowly,
Then disintegrates again -
Another plane in heron grey
Slides and tilts,
And disappears.
After a week without rain
The Teifi has shrunk back,
Shimmering thin in midday sun.
But I fish on,
Dredging pools with worms
Into darkness and beyond,
Beneath tree roots
Into the corners of the river's mind
Where the trout hide,
Watching.
Suddenly, I am caught, for a second,
In the pilot's eye,
Then gone,
Behind the scream
Towards the valley-head upstream.
A final turn of plane
Wings against blue sky -
And across the river,
Against a tree,
A sheep contracts, shuddering.
Pushing out
A black
Lifeless heap,
Like dung.
A pile of shattered nerves.