The icy road told of a familiar foreboding© GERALD ENGLAND
The driven snow was a warning
like another season's newmown hay
The wind's bite drew a dog's bark
Chains couldn't trap a canine cognisance
The abandoned cars had dealt up their occupants
to the Squinting Cat or the Hunter's Arms,
where fire, food and liquor locked out the freeze
But there were others
whom only the dogs could sense,
who had set off from the moor's far side
to seek their solace in the snow
Not even the sheep had stayed
to welcome them
The forecast broadcast,
they'd been penned
All night the dogs howled
All night the farmer cursed
The farmer found four corpses
huddled in two loving-pairs
The moor's far side found
its unwelcome hippie guests had gone
The coroner found death
by misadventure
Composed: Sheffield, 10th January 1972
Publications
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1990 The Affiliate (Canada)
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