Forgotten Ground Regained
A Riddle
This poem was originally published in Witðowinde 50 p. 9.
Stripped to the skin, in cinders I sityet feel not the fire · who had feeling before.If you read now my riddle · aright after thought,what I’m like how I lived · you may learn from thy lore.Cramped was the cot · I came from at firsttill by struggling and striving · my strong bonds I burst.Yet I saw not the sky then · nor stood on the earth.No parent was present · at the place of my birth,but neighbors were near me · in numbers galore,all fostered by folk · who gave food in great store.No children I cherished, being chaste without choice,nor stirred up the sun · by the song of my voice.They who friendly had fed me, to foemen betrayed.I was haled from my home · and my heart was afraidwhen sternly they seized me · and slew me by force,then promptly the pillagers · plundered my corpse.Great crowds in my coffin · enclosed must be –though the weather was warm, it was winter for me.Now in shrouds that were sheer · we were sheeted at needand from winter to winter · we went with all speed.Next, lifted ere long from · where lowly I lay,they prepared me a pyre · in a place that was fit.The fuel was fetched · and the flame duly lit.Though the shroud that had sheathed me · was shed from me there,my companions are clothed, who go commonly bare.Then, stabbed with a spear, I was set there aloftwith odours and unguents · anointed full oft.No mourning was made, but mirth in good measure.The goods that they gave me · were gotten like treasureby men from the mould, though the mine was not deep.No hill is to hold me, no howe do they heapto leave me alone · at the last with my glory –fate otherwise ordered · the end of my story.Though they walk sev’ral ways, yet I’ll wend with each man.Now read me this riddle · aright if you can.
Copyright © Pat Masson, 1980. Reprinted with the permission of her family.
Answer: A barbecued capon, hatched in an incubator, reared intensively, plucked and drawn,put in a deep-freeze, wrapped in polythene, transported to the cold cabinet of a supermarket, bought, unwrapped, cooked on a spit, basted with a spicy sauce, cooked with potatoes in their jackets.