ASTER

 

Aster, starflower of the Gods

Pleasing to the varied eye

In their beauteous abundance

And loved equally by the butterflies

ALBATROSS

 

The Albatross on the wing

Over southern ocean

The sun gleaming

On it’s out span pinion

CHANTICLEER COCK

 

In the farmyard

Where the chickens scratch

A Chanticleer cock keeps an eye

On his clucking batch

 

But if some unfortunate

Mishap should befall

Leaving the farmyard

With no cock at all

 

Then nature will take a hand

To correct the mishap

Turning one of the scratchy hens

Into a chap

UNDER MACKEREL SKIES

 

Trawler men, leave

The safety of port,

Putting out to sea

Under Mackerel skies

And on foaming oceans

Drag their nets

And hope that God

See’s them safe to port

THE LANDSCAPE IS DESERTED

 

The landscape is deserted

The lake is frozen,

The reeds heavy with frost

And the Ducks have flown south

The snow lays deep

And Deer have meandered

To greener pastures

The songbirds have migrated

Leaving trees bare and empty

Though the sky is clear blue

And the sun bright

It holds no warmth

And the air is fresh and cold

THE AIR IS COOLER

 

The air is cooler

Just below the tree line

In the foothills of the mountain

Peace and quiet reigns

In the shade of the pines

And the freshness

Of the evening breeze

But for the bird song

CAUGHT IN THAT FIRST INSTANT

 

Caught in that first instant,

That first take from a distance

There appeared from the Woodlands edge

A kind of low misty apparition

Almost like a cloud of drifting smoke

Emerging from the tree line

Of course, when I got closer I realised

It was just the flowering Hawthorn