Bordeaux Bay

Bordeaux Bay
Bordeaux Bay by Guernsey-based artist Tony Taylor

Wednesday 5 July 2017

DOG DAYS (2)

This is probably one of the oldest poems I've featured here. Written nearly twenty years ago, it still retains the power to bring a lump to my throat.






















JACK

My name is Border Collie, Jack, age seven years: my coat is black
with, here and there, a splash of white, and one white paw, my foreleg, right.

My sire and dam were Bob and Bree, each with a lengthy pedigree.
In me, their hearts and souls combine. Mine is a pure and noble line.

I worked for Farmer Collinfold, who died when I was six years old. 
He was a kindly man, but stern, and in those years I came to learn
that, as a hand fills out a glove, so loyalty gives shape to love.  


At Country Shows, in those bright days, I won rosettes and gathered praise:
I was renowned for grace and style. I was a hero for a while.  


The world moved on and I grew older. Work grew harder, nights grew colder.
Younger collies constantly pushed to gain supremacy.

I worked a farm at Eden Rock till foot and mouth destroyed the flock
and now my Master sits and stares. I nose his hand, he turns and swears.  

With empty fields devoid of sheep, I hang around the yard and sleep.
I am the Border Collie, Jack. I need my pride and purpose back. 
Though not so young, my heart is strong. I need a place where I belong.

If there are sheep left in the land; if somewhere there’s a Master’s hand 
that reaches, absently to pat, I can be there. I can do that. 


1 comment:

  1. And these were the first words that I heard uttered from my husband-to-be's lips when I first set eyes on him many years ago! His dulcet Belfast accent was the final decider!

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