Smith (a fictional response) in reply to Seamus Heaney's translation of Eoghan Rua Suilleabhain's instructions to blacksmith Seamus MacGearailt   Eoghan, forge me some lines for the working man; this deal's to be struck before an inch of your steel shall feel the hammer. Sit while I request my wants; spare me the scars of a fickle heart, let me feel the furnace that pastes a shirt into the small of a back, the rawness of drought in the hollow of a grit-desert palm, the suffering of timber when swiftly judged by the axe, or the coal dust settling in the pockets of the lungs like tar, the rheumatic creak from the shaft of a veteran shovel as Stentor to Hermes when compared to the bones of himself; too weak to compete with what lies beneath the muscle. And the rhythm, Eoghan, I beg you, sweet as a bell. Brett Evans If you have any comments on this poem, Brett Evans would be pleased to hear them.