SEPTEMBER 2006

 


No Land Without a Master
  by B.F.Warren


They moved away from the country, one
following the other in time, if not in 
step with an economic rationale
 
only to arrive in this or another Tuam
having sold their Land League acres they 
live now according to the design of others'
expediencies, here or elsewhere, there with 
a window view to a more vague realty
 
is this not perhaps a peculiar succession 
then, a migration with a history that 
remains somewhat less than oral
 
they moved away and today are still doing 
so, cursed long before the ghost of a Malthus
scattered abroad, long dead, blind to the 
light of pastoral beauty disappearing
 
they moved away from their country homes
where there are now fewer ears listening to 
soughing contexts of garden trees
 
B.F. Warren 2006