Menu
--chosen-work--
Cricket at the Mill
Sharp the crack of bat on ball
loud the shouts of celebration
all along the sawmill wall
at their lunch-time recreation
sawmill workers lead the way
wooden ball turned on the lathe
bat hacked from a wooden stave
In three fields beside the sawmill
eastertide there came the fair
eager vigils in out schoolyard
rejoicing when the rides were there
weeks off school the major reason
also start of cricket season
We all hid in elder bushes
right beside the railway tracks
where the logs came in for shaping
handles for a scythe and axe
where rejected poducts came
where we learned to play the game
We were never short of sawdust
wonky handles off-shaped knobs
some were short of hand or fingers
consequences of their jobs
lumbered by the cross they bore
caught by lathe or stumped by saw