Raised Bog

We love the smell of turf and associate it with cultural tradition

But whether and  where to cut peat remains a much debated subject.

For the facts behind Raised and Blanket Bogs see link below.

http://www.ipcc.ie/a-to-z-peatlands/raised-bogs/

Raised Bog

My centre is not bottomless as you supposed.

And soon I will no longer surprise you

with my treasure trove, my black butter,

my bog men, my great Irish elk-

Your history and mine.

You will make walkways across what is left of me

as your Iron Age ancestors did

and teens tuned to i-pods will lark along my edges

once ten millennia deep, thick in iron rich ochre,

fished, reed choked, tree planted and engulfed.

I once rose high above my blanket bog neighbour

I was a bog- mossed dome then.

Now your mechanical diggers cleave 

and slice into hardpan and waterlog

to reach bedrock- that is mine.

Copyright with Cathy Leonard 2016