Anne Boileau lives in north Essex. She observes and writes about that county’s ancient landscape, history and wildlife. She’s an active member of Suffolk Poetry Society. Having studied German in Munich she worked as a translator, interpreter and language teacher and enjoys translating German poems into English.
a gap in the roof
The child leans on a hurdle, watches the sow
with her nine new-born piglets.
She smells warm pig, hessian sacks, hay
and engine grease from the Ferguson tractor
parked in the dark recesses of the huge old barn
but sees only the sow and her family,
bathed in light,
glowing from within.
The piglets were not here yesterday.
They are here today.
A tile is missing on the roof of the vast dark barn.
A sunbeam shines down at a slant
lighting up the sow
as she lies in her bed of straw,
grunting with contentment.
Later in life she will recall this scene
when she sees in paintings
the same hallowed glow.
Rubens: Daniel in the Lions’ Den
Caravaggio: The Raising of Lazarus
Cranach: Adoration of the Shepherds
Nine new-born piglets pushed and suckled
at their mother’s teats,
the fine hairs on their naked bodies
lit up like silver.
Anne Boileau