Wild Court

An international poetry journal based in the English Department of King’s College London

‘The Retired Agronomist….’: a poem by Rebecca Goss

The poem below is taken from Rebecca Goss’ fourth collection, Latch, recently published by Carcanet. There will be an online launch for the book on the evening of Wednesday 7th June, hosted by Caroline Bird. 


The Retired Agronomist Drives a Tractor in the Summer Because He Likes the Oily Smell of the Machine

And how the soil turns
to give up its creaturely
yield. Gulls, massing.
Their swoops to raid each
cultivated ridge. And how
unchanged it is for bird
to follow plough. Purest wings
dipping down to earth.
And how his wife crosses
stubble to bring pasta with
green beans from the garden,
three spaniels at her heels.
And how this meal is eaten
in the tractor’s cab after
oilseed rape is sown, fruiting.
And how we will pass
this laboured square, remark
the yellow dazzle.

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