Another sample from Prodigal, the latest collection from Glasgow's new poet laureate Jim Carruth (Mariscat, £6).
The book deals eloquently with the changing world of rural life in Scotland (the Carruth family farm is in Renfrewshire). The "Case International" is a tractor.
PROGRESS
Same year as that photograph of the man
who stopped the tanks' progress in the square
my father strikes a similar pose, facing up
to a new red and black Case International.
Dwarfed by the advances he supported
in his lifetime, he's seen the baton pass
between Clydesdale and diesel breeds
his horseman father becoming mechanic.
No stand-off this, but simply a witness
to the present, an acceptance of a future
where he will wilt back into the ground -
His life, plough and grain.
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