Читать книгу Lines from Collings Hill - Nellie Hunt Collings - Страница 6

ON FIRST SEEING PHOTOGRAPHS OF MY GRANDFATHER IN HIS MIDDLE-AGE

He always seems unfinished—cheeks

Rough with whitened whiskers, hair

Corn-shock coarse and peppered black

On white, lips thin and quavering and

Querulous in coming age. Even when

I see him young, ambitious, smooth,

Eager to consume the world;

Or later, hearth-black by his forge,

Leather apron glossy in the heat;

Or later still a hatted silhouette

Among the corn—even then

There is about him that which cries

For grinder, sander, lathe, and polish to

Finish incompleteness—give him life.

—Michael R. Collings

With Love