MOONLIT MILL...

Moonlit Mill

The silence:

A full moon illuminates

The night sky through blackened cloud,

Forcing a pallid cirrus to reflect

Upon a harsh land

Which harbours mooring bollards 

Virtually nailed, for dramatic effect…

In essence:

A mill-wheel dips and spills

Into a stagnant pond awaiting a race

Of water, its angled paddles to move

Then power the machinery

To mill the harvested wheat

And rotate the dressed millstones above…

A luminescence:

A brace of row-boats redundant lie,

Steps hunch toward a doorway

And the mill is fussed by green reeds;

 Then the rusting wheel,

With weary, scraping complaint

Rumbles to the miller’s grave needs… 

Pete Ray

July 2017

Kirsty Elson’s model ‘Moonlit Mill’ made me think.

Whilst teaching in role at Birmingham’s Sarehole Mill, I was made aware of what kind of lives flour millers might have led… 

Add caption