Diane Hine - Purled and Plain lyrics

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Diane Hine - Purled and Plain lyrics

A reef of lacy coral tore The belly from a wooden boat and breakers ferried two ashore: one cabin boy, one nanny goat. The isle was greened with gra** and scrub which pleased the goat, so long confined although the boy could only grub for scraps the brine had tossed aside. A sack of wheat, a box of tools, a keg of rum to dull the grief but most supplies were sunk in pools or wedged in fissures on the reef. The boy eked out his meagre fare with bitter berries, tender shoots and mutton birds he trapped in snares and roasted whole with starchy roots. He ground the wheat to make a flour and soon a tempting fragrance spread which drew the goat in half an hour towards the bribe of fresh baked bread. Her eyes were yellow candle light her breath as warm as bu*tered toast but soon the winter winds would bite and then he'd need a cashmere coat. Her lower jaw slid side to side; he met her horizontal stare and while she ate he knelt beside and slowly clipped her shaggy hair. It took a week to spin the yarn and fashion knitting pins from wood and one more week to stitch and darn the front to back with sleeves and hood. She charged him in a show of scorn and smacked him with her lowered head and though he swore he'd have her horns he whittled bu*tons from wood instead. They hunched to counter winter's nip and shared some bread, baked crusty brown; their jaws creating rhythmic clicks hers side to side, his up and down. In early Spring he saw a ship and struck his flint to spark a blaze and watched a boat risk reef and rip to rescue two young castaways. He chose to leave and she to stay a taste for freedom in the blood and as she watched him bob away she ruminatively chewed on cud. The boy became a man of lore who crafted fables, ably wrote and kept in some forgotten drawer a wooden-bu*toned goat hair coat.