May 2016
The shout travels up the narrow valley
furthered faintly by the sheer rock face
to the ear of the man stacking shooks
he heaves the last sheaf into place
and walks to the shade tree
for the lunch brought by his wife
“It’ll be a fine harvest if it stays dry”
“Happen”
furthered faintly by the sheer rock face
to the ear of the man stacking shooks
he heaves the last sheaf into place
and walks to the shade tree
for the lunch brought by his wife
“It’ll be a fine harvest if it stays dry”
“Happen”
a scythe is a handheld tool for scything wheat or corn or oats or barley. A shook is a vertically piled number of sheaves of these cut grains stacked one against each other so that they dry with the grains-end off the ground. The shooks were held together with a twist of the grain stalks. I remember small irregular fields being hand cut with scythes with the grains stacked in shooks.
