EMYR HUMPHRIES

The Ancestor Worship Cycle

Xlll Gwr y Rhos

There is no such thing as the image of a country

For this reason put up this flag for approval:

It is made of skin and stained with sunlight and tobacco

It speaks in pickled phrases the language of apples

And it is wide enough for a shroud.

It remembers the road as a track, pigs

In every sty, a railway running, a harbour

With ships, a quarry working, fresh fish, young people

And planting trees in holes big enough

To bury a horse.

This man is a king except

He makes his living emptying caravan bins

And uses English in the shop to avoid giving offence

To visitors who do not know

Where they are or who he is.