书城英文图书Door into the Dark
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第5章 The Outlaw

Kelly's kept an unlicensed bull, well away

From the road: you risked a fine but had to pay

The normal fee if cows were serviced there.

Once I dragged a nervous Friesian on a tether

Down a lane of alder, shaggy with catkin,

Down to the shed the bull was kept in.

I gave Old Kelly the clammy silver, though why

I could not guess. He grunted a curt 'Go by.

Get up on that gate.' And from my lofty station

I watched the business-like conception.

The door, unbolted, whacked back against the wall.

The illegal sire fumbled from his stall

Unhurried as an old steam-engine shunting.

He circled, snored and nosed. No hectic panting,

Just the unfussy ease of a good tradesman;

Then an awkward, unexpected jump, and,

His knobbled forelegs straddling her flank,

He slammed life home, impassive as a tank,

Dropping off like a tipped-up load of sand.

'She'll do,' said Kelly and tapped his ash-plant

Across her hindquarters. 'If not, bring her back.'

I walked ahead of her, the rope now slack,

While Kelly whooped and prodded his outlaw

Who, in his own time, resumed the dark, the straw.