Contraband Poem by Sally Evans

Contraband



The girls ask the gardeners, ‭
‬offering brooms under trees, ‭
‬to bash the branches,
bring down a hail of nuts.

There are too many watching,
the yard is a busy place.
Better to ask such a favour
when no one's about.

Squirrels feast here at dawn.‭
‬Who knows how alerted
from grass and graveyards
over the high wall‭?

‬Ripe in August, ‭ ‬hidden, ‭
‬growing too high to reach, ‭
‬walnuts in leaf-‭ ‬and grass-green, ‭
‬firm, ‭ ‬with a brown stain.‭

‬Somebody working outside, ‭
‬with cloth bags hurries downwards, ‭
‬words of excuses forming, ‭
‬a nervous nod at the gate.‭

‬On quiet winter nights
in pubs at the foot of the hill
and in certain small houses, ‭
‬walnut chutney on plates.

POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
Another Stirling Castle poem
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