This atmospheric piece might be a real countryside tableau or the description of a painting.
It's included in Today Tomorrow, the admirable compilation of almost 70 years of poems by the Fraserburgh-born George Bruce (Polygon, £14.99 paperback).
CHILD AND TREE IN AUTUMN
Last night's rains ran the river mute
giving no sound in the morning's sun.
The fir plantation bends to the flowing hill
down which a straggle of copper beeches take
their doused fires to the water's edge.
From the bank the haws' red suns flare;
drenched rowans shake their fruits above.
Herds with swaying udders fulfil
the autumn day. Painted by a child
a house sits square in the middle.
Upstairs a face at a small pane peeks,
travels the canvas as if it might tear open,
the precarious moment swallowed in dark.
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