Annette’s poem Lamb has been selected to be included on the Wordsworth Blog to celebrate the great poet’s birthday.
This and other poems selected by the Wordsworth Trust may be viewed here.
Lamb
Slumped against the farmhouse wall,
a newborn lamb on his small lap,
bottle beside him dripping milk,
head still bowed with the effort
to coax the weak creature to drink,
but slack, the life drained out of him.
He shifted an inch at our footsteps,
cradled the lolling muzzle,
forced words out. “He took a sup!
He took a sup!” His father’s hands
unfolded, took away the scrap,
freed him to raise his eyes-
not to heaven; he just couldn’t bear
to look on earth, see familiar things
so changed. He couldn’t save,
no matter what we’d told him,
no matter how hard he tried,
no matter how much loved