While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping [traditional, adapted]
I had a long-legged lurcher dog;
I kept her in my keeping.
She’d flush out hare on a moonlit night,
while the gamekeepers lay sleeping,
while the gamekeepers lay sleeping.
One day the policeman collared me,
to have me in his keeping.
“Your brindle made a moonlit raid,
while the gamekeepers lay sleeping,
while the gamekeepers lay sleeping.
“I seen her come out of the woods,
across the fields a-speeding.
A partridge she had in her mouth,
while the gamekeepers lay sleeping,
while the gamekeepers lay sleeping.”
“But my dog’s black and white, you see,
so I’m not for your keeping.”
He couldn’t see I’d brindled she,
while the gamekeepers lay sleeping,
while the gamekeepers lay sleeping.
One day, his wife fell mortal ill;
he had to give up policing.
But I dropped one bird on his door each night,
while the gamekeepers lay sleeping,
while the gamekeepers lay sleeping.
Now, she fared so well upon pheasant broth,
her colour come back creeping,
so long as my bitch roamed abroad,
while the gamekeepers lay sleeping,
while the gamekeepers lay sleeping.
Then the bitch she pupped, and I given him one,
to have in his own keeping.
Now he’s left the force, and he roams wi’ me,
while gamekeepers lie sleeping—
while the world and his wife,
in the dead of night, lie sleeping.
#
II. Magical Dog: Mercurial Vixen
Laelaps is unrelenting in pursuit:
the Cadmean Fox is uncatchable.
Dizzied by an unending paradox,
Zeus locks the chase, transforming them to stone—
punctuating the Vault of Heaven with
still-to-be-seen celestial bodies.
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