GloPoWriMo 2018 - day thirteen

Today the prompt is to use a familiar phrase or saying that is 'upended'.

"Red sky at night shepherd's delight, red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning"

(My thanks to Ralph McTell for inspiring this, which is nearly plagiarised from one of his songs, albeit the cause is different!)


Red Sky

The farmer, with his dog at his heels as ever, walked from the yard
Up into the field by the trees. He looked across at the empty acres,
That only yesterday were thronged with sheep, with cattle inbye.
He walked on past the trees, and up to the hill gate at the top of
The field, and thence out onto the moors that for three generations
Had been in his family, farmed before him by his father, his grandfather
And his great-grandfather. The heathered tops and rocky outcrops
Stood resolute and timeless in the cool of the evening, the blue of
The cloud-whispered sky showing no warmth, no delightful promise
Of a fine day tomorrow. Her turned, and gazed back down on the buildings,
The house where he had been born, the barns and the byres.
Heading back uphill he climbed higher, until he came to the stream that
Tumbled down, gathering strength as it approached the yard, and that
In olden days had powered the waterwheel that now was a mere
Skeleton of wooden limbs, bladeless and  powerless, slowly rotting
Into obscurity. Pausing by the stream he stood still, silent, hands in
Pockets and face inscrutable in the now dimming last light of the day.
Beyond the farm buildings he could see the lower field, the trench within
It stark in the evening light, long shadows and grey craters juxtaposed with
The remaining grass that until only yesterday had been grazed by his cattle.
Even now, there was still smoke rising and spiralling from the funeral pyres,
The work of his lifetime and his father's and his grandfather's and his
Great-grandfather's, all smouldering in ruins, killed in a 'contiguous cull'.
With all the science and medicine and the things that vets could do, why
Could they not stop the foot and mouth by other means? Why did it need
To end the lives of so many, animals and men?
He pulled the letter from his pocket, the figures meaning nothing against
The memory of beasts he had tended from birth, and as he looked it one
Last time, he pressed the button on the detonation controller, and watched,
One more workless shepherd, as a red sky brought him no delight at all.