Two Bulls: the fair-horned…

County Sligo, Carrowmore, Tuesday 26th July 2022…

***

***

White his heavy mane

and his massive hoofs

pounded in purple;

***

***

his body dyed, blood

red, from the clay bog

with a blank pap

under breast and back;

***

***

 and from nape to rump

 a thirty-boy gap

his ponderous tail

hanging hinder haunch;

***

***

to his cows the

beloved idol of herds;

 father of big beasts,

born to bear victory:

***

***

  bellowing in greatness…

***

***

Songs of the Stone

*

“To regain the Ulster Spoil,

Seek out the Nine Chief Culdees of Erin…

Then journey with them to the Ogham Stone of Fergus Mac Roy,

And there fast for three nights and three days.

*

If the question, given to each Culdee in turn,

during their fast, be spoken to the Stone of Fergus

as if to that mighty man himself…

*

Then, ‘The Spoil’, will be again revealed

in plain and perfect form

for the instruction of the ages.” 

– A Hag Load of Lard

*

Cover artwork – Sue Vincent

Available now in paperback from Amazon