Why Brownlee Left
By Paul Muldoon
Why Brownlee left, and where he went,
Is a mystery even now.
For if a man should have been content
It was him; two acres of barley,
One of potatoes, four bullocks,
A milker, a slated farmhouse.
He was last seen going out to plough
On a March morning, bright and early.
By noon Brownlee was famous;
They had found all abandoned, with
The last rig unbroken, his pair of black
Horses, like man and wife,
Shifting their weight from foot to
Foot, and gazing into the future.
Copyright Credit: Paul Muldoon, "Why Brownlee Left" from Why Brownlee Left. Copyright © 1980 by Paul Muldoon. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Source: Why Brownlee Left (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1980)