Dykes

Dykes

That dyke has been standing around a long time
without once having realised it is a dyke:
but ignorance is no embarrassment to dykes.

Dykes enjoy being noticed:
they have no other pleasure in the world.
Insects, weasels, the smallest birds –
and numerous other creatures
dykes wouldn’t recognise by name –
have been noticing dykes
ever since dykes were invented
by the first people who wanted
to keep things in or out.
Nothing understands a dyke like weasels,
and they have a lot going for them
once they get inside a dyke.
Birds rear their delicate families in dykes,
and weasels certainly know that too.

Dykes never actually get bored.
They never think, as far as anybody knows,
but they do a lot of looking
in a stupid, determined way.

The birthplace of dykes is where they are
and always will be.
The graves of dykes are dykes themselves,
no longer willing to stand up
to the responsibility of being dykes.

by Angus Martin
from: The Larch Plantation

Thanks to Norman Haddow for sending this poem my way.