A Dorset lad, just fifteen years
Loads double-gun for squire’s shoot.
Father’s battle-line of beaters
Crash through brush in wild pursuit
Of partridge in their coven. Flushed
To flight on whirring wings, muted
By cannonade, the boy’s cry, stepping out
Half-blinded by the shot.
Notes:
My great-grandfather was double gunner for the Charborough Estate shoot, Bere Regis (double gunner is a shotgun loader able to ready and pass the loaded gun and take and reload the empty shotgun before the firing of 2 rounds). Obviously he survived the injury.
Illustration – Bere Regis church where he was baptised and worshipped. – artist John Everett
Just 44 words for the Quadrille prompt: Flush
PoetryPix 