Friday, April 06, 2012

Lambs - haibun

(Thursday 5 April)
Three of us walk through the fields of young crops, along muddy footpaths.  Four miles in, and I’m hungry.  We look for a suitable spot to park ourselves – there’s a mound with trees, and a couple of stumps. That’ll do.

Our backs are to the wind, and I change my ‘buff’ to balaclava.  A biscuit or two. Coffee fresh from the flask.

This field is full of sheep and tiny lambs.  Lots of them are lying down. The chill must have come as a shock after the warmth of the week gone by.

Perhaps this mound is an ancient burial mound, we joke – more likely a folly to entertain the family at the Hall close by.   We wander over to look for an entrance.  A hollow tree draws us – a magnet for children and the curious.  Inside there’s a tiny corpse – a lamb.  We feel sad for a life so short.

a few months
to gambol in green fields
before the table

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