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The First Herdwick

When God said:  “Let there be sheep”,
High on a crag in Cumbria
A lump of slate cracked free to tup
A shawl of passing cloud, which, somewhat
Shocked, floated to the mountain top
And there gave birth to something
Woolly and wiley, mild-eyed,
White faced, grey as frost in starlight
And with a most determined set of legs.
And God said:  “What’s yon?”
And Sheep said: “I’s a Herdwick”.
And God looked at all the sheep he’d made
And saw that they were good;
But he looked at the Herdwick and said:-
“Ayes – them’s the buggers!”
by Ross Baxter

This poem is included in ” This Place I Know. A New Anthology of Cumbrian Poetry”  Handstand Press 2018