There are two standing stones near to Boleigh Farm (a few miles west of Penzance) which are known as The Pipers. Their name derives from the story that they were two pipers who provided the music for a group of girls who were dancing on a Sunday, the Lord’s Day back in the day. Despite being a couple of fields away from the girls, they were all turned into stone by an angry God and remain set in stone as The Pipers and The Merry Maidens. Over a few years now, I have noticed the presence of a third piper, this one not made of stone but of metal and rubber…a rusting trailed forage harvester.

THE THIRD PIPER OF BOLEIGH

The other two once stood accused

Of profanation of the Lord’s Day

By providing musical accompaniment

To nineteen merry dancing maidens.

Habeas corpus and the airtight alibi

That they were already petrified

When that vengeful God came along,

Won the day. The defence rests.

But what of this third piper of Boleigh?

Standing equal in height, it peers over

And huddles close to a Cornish hedge.

Once a trailed forage harvester, but this

Is no abandonment of old farm machinery;

Past its usefulness, fly-tipped and left

For Nature to take its overarching course.

This has been carefully positioned, sited,

Given its own personal field, like its peers.

This is the work of a modern antiquarian

Leaving his mark… a lasting reminder of

Not Stone, Bronze, Iron but Machine Age.

Its decline will be watched across a lifetime

And perhaps for a good while beyond.

No one will ponder how it came to be

Or suggest that someone was ‘ferrified’;

Turned to metal by an overreacting god.

Lichen co-exists on its stone siblings

But rust encouraged by the old elements

Will persevere in wiping the memory.

©graylightfoot