3 Erddig Poems

Erddig Poems

The Housekeeper’s Dog ‘Grip’

(Jane Brown, featured in the servant’s picture gallery)

Her room would have a fire burning
to warm her as she doled out linen,
wrote her lists, checked accounts
or hemmed and darned.

Always her terrier Grip glued
to the best pace on the hearth
warming his belly at the flame,
night-times spread across his owner’s feet.

Here he is. On her lap in the photograph,
baring his teeth at the photographer.
Only Jane’s tight grip on his collar
stops him from leaping to attack.

Gill McEvoy

Ghosts

(Philip and Louisa Yorke)

This is the salon, the best room,
where poor Louisa crouches still
to mend the precious Axminster.

Note the quantity of mirrors here.
Stare in and you might find the fractured
form of Philip. Standing at your shoulder.

Gill McEvoy

The Heavy Horses Consider their Visitors

Time after time we lower our submissive
faces to beseeching hands:
they want to feel the massive
bulk of our huge necks and heads.

How we’d love to barge the stable door,
make for the fields, roll in the juicy grass,
rid ourselves for once and all
of their unpleasant human stink.

Gill McEvoy