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# The Fence
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/poem-2619jsp/
- Published: 2005-06-21T23:06:00.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:51:03.000Z
- Author: Robin Bell
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 19:17

Rumble of thunder. Scared sheep run  
and spread along the bright new fence.  
They nudge it, trying to make sense  
of a landscape suddenly undone

by careful links and clattering men.  
Ewes turn to face their lambs, and bleat.  
The lambs bleat back. Ewes bleat again  
then smell the grass beneath their feet,

forget the fence and start to graze.  
In the big house, men write menus,  
budget their words, mark out their days.  
The new fence does not change their views.

They cannot see where they sit, concealed  
from panicky flocks in the fattening field.

  
**For more on Robin Bell and the G8 summit:**  
[**http://www.creativescotland.org.uk/**](http://www.creativescotland.org.uk/artists/2005/bell.htm?ref=opendemocracy.net)