The Anatomy of Linen
She knows that it all boils down to flax
that it has a long staple relative to cotton
that the word is predominantly West Germanic
and cognate to the Latin
that it has a high natural lustre
that, broken down, it assumes the form
of irregular shapes
which contribute to its texture…
The mechanics of rippling, retting and scutching
are way beyond her now.
Easing into the arms of another
she slowly gets the measure of it.
It might be clothing or it might be bedsheets
spinning dreams into yarns.
On The Conversation Of Farm Machinery
The loose chatter of the combine-harvester loud-whispering the wheat.
Neil Leadbeater is an author, editor, essayist, poet and critic living in Edinburgh, Scotland. His short stories, articles and poems have been published widely in anthologies and journals both at home and abroad. His most recent books are Librettos for the Black Madonna (White Adder Press, Scotland, 2011); The Worcester Fragments(Original Plus Press, England, 2013); The Loveliest Vein of Our Lives (Poetry Space, England, 2014), The Fragility of Moths (Bibliotheca Universalis, Romania, 2014) and Sleeve Notes(Bibliohteca Universalis, Romania, 2016). He is a regular reviewer for the on-line journal Galatea Resurrects (A Poetry Engagement) (USA) and his work has been translated into Dutch, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish.
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