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Terry Jones - House in Winter
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House in Winter
Terry Jones
Building a house in winter, my father
fought with earth cooked to iron by frost.
He'd set a fire to thaw sand, gravel, cement,
free water, then run with the barra’
to lay foundations before concrete set
to a hard ice brick fossilising shovel and pick.
He worked back-breaker hours in cold
so violent it could crack bricks like glass,
on a single touch of steel weld fast a hand.
Though never his. Too quick for that, unequalled
through Yorkshire, he'd load the hod then climb
so fast he met himself returning for a second stack.
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