Danish farming ancestry

Furrowed your brow
stiffened your sinews
slaughtered your cows
reared your pigs
slit their throats
hung hares from the
rafters let them
bleed out

yet the days we picked mushrooms
from the hidden fields and
how you described the sky
your weak water colours
and your harmonica sighs…
I cannot start (although I’ve tried)
to procure

but yes
danish farming ancestry
must be to blame
for that night
the floorboards creaked
when your wife (my nan) refused to hear
you opening the door
you inching in when
the light from the hall
reflected your index finger to lip
onto the flock papered wall
and you drawing back
the heavy eiderdown
and you climbing in.