Sunday 25 February 2018

Inheritance

Dear Reader,




 Gloucester Old Spot Pigs



Gloucester Old Spot pigs originated around the Berkeley vale on the southern shores of the river Severn in south West England.  They were usually kept in cider and perry pear orchards of the area, and on dairy farms.  Windfall fruit and waste from the dairies supplemented their grazing habits.  Local folklore says that the spots on their backs are bruises from the fallen fruit. Besides its correct title are variations such as Gloster Spot or just Old Spot, the breed is also known as : The Orchard Pig and the Cottager's Pig.  In a book by the Victorian writer, H.D. Richardson, he  concludes that the Gloucester Old Spot Pig was derived from crossing the original Gloucerstershire pig, - a large, off white variety with wattles hanging from its neck, with the unimproved Berkshire, a coloured prick-eared pig with spots. 
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Seagull news:  In Scarborough birds of prey are going to be hired to tackle the growing menace of swooping seagulls.  These birds of prey are 'specifically trained not to kill' the gulls 'but solely to deter them'.   Well its worth  try, I suppose.

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Inheritance

What was it that made me
think of you, who
are bone-dust now,
with no statue or monument
to bear your witness?
Was it the apple-bruised spots
on the Gloucester Old Spot pigs,
their legacy from apple orchards, long ago,
to mark them out?

In the afternoon sunlight
as I bent to touch their skin
I saw that my hands, brown-spotted,
were you hands, identical.
Was this your legacy to me
something to say you were here?

More precious than possessions,
you passed to our inheritance
from some ancient eastern shore.
Your brownness, your hands, brown spotted,
which marked you.

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With very best wishes, Patricia

3 comments:

  1. I love this Trishpot! Once again a brilliant story, so evocatively written, and a fab poem that says so much with so little. xoxooxxo

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  2. A magical poem woven from such an everyday
    subject. Superb.xxx

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  3. Beautiful ideas, beautifully expressed.

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