I was staying with Kate

Whilst on a field trip

We had been together

For a number of years

And she had invited me to visit

The Black Bog Lands

Where she had spent her early years

We were staying in her parents cottage

As part of our Scottish adventure

But it had rained without a break

And we had not made much progress

So we hung out on the farm

Painting writing drawing

Eating drinking cooking

And occasionally singing

I was having a good time

Yet the area unnerved me

Due to bleakness of the landscape

I was told that they had been

Many sacrifices in the Black Bog Lands

And that many bodies lay in the vicinity of the farm

I had asked Kate about the low murmurs

Which seemed to populate the night

At first she pretended not to have heard anything

But then admitted that she had heard them

From her earliest years and that in time

I would get used to them and accept them