Diggers (From Ledbury Reporter)

Diggers

11:06am Monday 8th June 2009

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On allotment ground trees swirl in blossom The soft fruit swells and hangs beneath Beans twist and turn their way to heaven On plots of land that live and breathe.

In cemetery ground the graves are blooming Damp from tears that mourners cried The ranks of crosses wash towards us A wave of bodies on an incoming tide.

We come with forks to turn the soil Like Diggers of a modern phase The plants, the food, a common treasury Welcome respite from this pre-packed age.

They come with spades to dig the earth But nothing grows from their well kept beds No life springs from their careful tending The merely come to plant the dead.

Civil War on a patch of ground Fought with our words, not with shot Strange that it should come to this That Life or Death must lose the plot.

NICK HALLIGAN, Barret Rise, St James Park, Malvern.

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