La terra (è) bassa

I love the Tuscan peasant phrase ‘la terra bassa’ - literally ‘the earth is low’ as in hard to reach, or a long way from a biped’s hand.

Back to the land today hoeing, stone picking, cutting and sowing (borlotti beans).

Big T, The Boss and the newlyweds have flown and I’m here on my Jack Jones listening to the swifts scream by as the holding light in a cloudless skies shifts by slow degrees towards a short and balmy night.

How much attention
The soil needs
Low beneath my feet
The stones and
Broken bramble wood
It’s crust closed in to keep
Her secret treasure store bound in
this ancient gleyey soil
La terra bassa
He rueful said
Its sweat and hard and toil.