Wild Harvest
Autumn when Nature her riches shares
A profusion of wild fruits so lavish
That there for all the wayside bears
Free fruits that trees and hedgerows
garnish
Magnificent chestnut’s generous harvest
Where children delight in shiny
conkers
With zest released from spiny vest
Gleaming rich with chestnut varnish
Rosettes and trails of scarlet glows
From hips and haws and rowan berries
And bryony’s glistening beaded
garlands
Like jewels flung with careless
abandon
There’s indigo bloom of bitter sloes
And dusky damsons hanging like cherries
Black glossy elder fruit, crab apples
gold
For gin and wine or jams and jellies
Wild harvest too for squirrels and
birds
All kinds of creatures both feathered
and furred
Gathered and stored with one accord
Collected and hidden with scrupulous
care
Nuts and seeds for winter hoard
Secreted away in burrow and lair
From oak boughs bowed with weight of
the acorns
Away from prying eyes are buried
Armoured by thorns but tempting and
luscious
Blackberries abound in succulent
clusters
With their crooks and their hooks people
picking and eating
(One has a stepladder – but surely
that’s cheating)
There’s a huge hornet like motorbike
parked by the edge
While its tattooed black leathered
owner dallies
His helmet abandoned beside the hedge
Facial studs glinting – he is picking
the blackberries
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